AZ: Senators Call on County Attorney to Approve Release of Ballots

[kster]

Posted by Wilms:

AZ: Senators Call on County Attorney to Approve Release of Ballots


http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_conten...

Arizona: Senators Call on County Attorney Andy Thomas to Approve Release of Ballots

By Jack Harper, Arizona State Senator
December 08, 2005

“It’s Time to Restore Integrity and Confidence to Election Process”

Arizona State Senator Jack Harper, a Republican, has issued subpoenas for access to ballots and tabulation equipment used in the 2004 LD20 Republican primary election, in which a machine recount in Maricopa County resulted in nearly 500 more votes counted on the same ballots. The data shows pretty conclusively that either the optical scanners failed (ES&S Optech IV-C) or there was tampering or at least mishandling of the ballots. The Maricopa County election officials have not been forthcoming as to the cause of the discrepancy. Harper has been talking with Doug Jones about conducting tests here later this month. The state senators supporting Harper are all Republicans, which is great, as this makes this a bipartisan concern here. Unfortunately, Harper is getting a lot of pressure from the Senate leadership to drop this investigation. Nevertheless, he just released the following message:

snip

Last week, Senate Government Accountability and Reform committee chairman Jack W. Harper issued subpoenas to both the Maricopa County Recorders office and the Maricopa County Treasurer’s office directing them to provide information and ballots from the District 20 Republican primary race for a review by the committee and its staff. As of today, County Treasurer David Schweikert has indicated that his office may not comply with the valid legislative subpoena and release the ballots. Schweikert has turned over the subpoena to the Maricopa County Attorney’s office for review and has redirected all inquiries from the Committee.

snip

The Senate Government Accountability and Reform Committee has retained University of Iowa professor Douglas Jones, a nationally recognized expert on voting machines and a member of the State of Iowa’s Board of Examiners for Voting Machines, to conduct an independent audit of the ballots, voting machines, the programs.

snip

Senator Harper concluded, “The circumstances surrounding the District 20 Republican Primary election last year are very troubling. The explanations provided so far by officials from the county election department are not consistent with the available evidence. As long as there remain real questions to be answered about the outcome of this race then I believe we must continue to investigate and find the truth. There is nothing more important to our system of democracy than maintaining the integrity of our elections. I am confident that Andy Thomas shares my views and that he will not allow his office to stand in the way of our attempts to find out exactly what happened last year.”
snip

http://www.votetrustusa.org/index.php?option=com_conten...

[Hello_Kitty]

1. kick and I put it in the AZ Forum. Thanks! n/t

[texpatriot2004]

2. So, if it's a GOP "election" then they look into it? n.t