Arizona attorney general finds logistical and legal ‘concerns’ after election probe

PHOENIX (CN) — Arizona’s Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich released Wednesday the initial findings of his investigation into 2020 election processes in Maricopa County, citing concerns over signature verification, chain of custody procedures and the use of private money.

The report, sent to Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, addresses the signature verification process of early ballots in 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw an overwhelming increase in early ballots due to public safety concerns. Election officials and Democrats dispute Brnovich's findings.

Maricopa County saw an increase of 723,276 early ballots but also a dramatic decrease in the number of ballots returned without a signature, according to Brnovich.

The number moved from 2209 no-signature ballots in Maricopa County in 2016’s presidential election to 1455 in 2020, a 41% decrease.

Brnovich also claims they saw only a slight rise in unconfirmed or mismatched signatures. The office cites a change of 353 unverified signatures in the 2018 general election to 587 in the 2020 presidential election for Maricopa County, a 49% increase.

Brnovich, a Republican, found the county may have been ill-prepared to handle the influx of early ballots to verify signatures properly.

On Nov. 4, Maricopa County verified 206,648 votes, which Brnovich’s office estimates to be 4.6 seconds per signature. According to his office, high-volume verification scenarios like this may cause compromised election integrity.

“We recommend the law be amended to provide additional security for early ballots, including a requirement that voters who choose to vote by early ballot provide some additional form of government identification,” Brnovich wrote to Fann.

The report also claims that many early drop box ballots lacked a proper chain of custody documentation. Of 1,895 early voting ballot transportation statements, 381 or 20% of the statements lacked required information such as signatures, ballot counts, signatures, seals and seal numbers.

Brnovich’s office estimates somewhere between 100,000 to 200,000 ballots were transported without a proper chain of custody.

Brnovich also suggested that the Arizona Secretary of State, Maricopa County and Pima County used up to $8 million in private grant money during the election.

“We are carefully reviewing this report to determine if any election laws were violated through the use of these funds,” Brnovich wrote to Fann. “Although our review is ongoing, our initial findings raise serious concerns regarding the legality of certain expenditures.”

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs quickly responded to the report.

"This report confirms that Attorney General Brnovich has wasted thousands of hours of time — at the taxpayers' expense — to chase cyber ninja conspiracies,” Hobbs said in a statement to Courthouse News. “But instead of simply following the evidence, he speculates. Instead of clarity, he provides conjecture. Enough is enough. It's clear that AG Brnovich is more focused on his Senate campaign than on the job he was elected to do.”

Maricopa County officials denied allegations from Brnovich, claiming the county was less than cooperative in helping with his investigation.

“We've spent nearly eight months cooperating with the AG's office,” said Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer in a joint statement. “Our election professionals have worked day and night to gather the information responsive to both Mr. Brnovich’s civil and criminal inquiries, all while running two safe, secure, and accurate jurisdictional elections during that time period.”

The Arizona Democratic Party questioned whether Brnovich’s report release was due to pressures within his party.

“Brnovich’s update comes just weeks after Donald Trump released not one but two targeted messages threatening Brnovich to finally ‘rule on all of the Election Fraud,’” the party said in a statement. “This report also follows weeks of Brnovich’s primary opponents in the U.S. Senate race attacking him for insufficiently backing Trump’s baseless election conspiracy theories.”

Brnovich is running for U.S. Senate in a bid to challenge Democratic U.S Senator Mark Kelly in the 2022 midterm elections. Despite the state primary approaching quickly in August, Trump has yet to endorse a candidate for Kelly’s seat.

Brnovich’s successor may have to field the brunt of the investigative work for election integrity inquiry as Brnovich said it might take months to years to follow up on investigations fully.

When asked if he would follow through with investigations initiated by Brnovich, Abraham Hamadeh, a leading ‘America First’ GOP candidate for Arizona attorney general, said he would.

“We need to hold those who robbed President Trump in 2020 accountable,” said Hamadeh in a statement to Courthouse News.

Follow @themikemcdaniel

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