Grand Canyon Times

The writer of an anonymous letter read by state Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley) at a voter integrity meeting Monday at the Hilton El Conquistador Hotel and Convention Center in Oro Valley alleges 35,000 fraudulent mail votes were cast in Pima County in the 2020 general election.

Finchem, who was accompanied by Rudy Giuliani and other Republican state lawmakers, said that the writer of the letter claimed to be in a room in September 2020 where the plan to “embed the votes” into the vote totals was revealed to Pima County Democratic leaders. 

The writer allegedly reported the fraud to U.S. Department of Justice and to Arizona state lawmakers four days after the election. 

President Joe Biden carried Pima County by nearly 100,000 votes on route to winning Arizona, the first Democratic presidential candidate to win the state since 1996.

An editorial by Laurie Roberts of the Arizona Republic notes that the anonymous letter is 13 months old and that the attorney general's election integrity unit investigated the allegation and found no evidence.

“Over the last 12 months a few members of the Legislature and resources from various election integrity organizations have conducted a quiet, but fruitful investigation into the substance and reliability of the allegation,” Finchem, a candidate for secretary of state, said in a news release announcing the meeting.

The anonymous letter states: “In the initial count of the vote by mail (VBM) totals released at 8 p.m. on Nov. 3, 2020, there are approximately 35,000 fraud votes added to each Democrat candidates’ vote totals. Candidates impacted include county, state and federal election candidates. Through the utilization of the automated ballot count machines in Pima County elections, my understanding is that 35,000 was embedded into each Democratic candidates’ total votes.”

The letter continues: “Maricopa County’s embed totals will be substantially larger than Pima, due to embeds being calculated based on the total number of registered voters. When I asked, ‘Has this ever been tested, and how do we know it works,’ the response was, yes, this has been tested and has shown significant success in Arizona judicial retention elections, since 2014.”

Finchem brought the letter up at a Trump rally in Iowa in October, prompting Arizona Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Wright to ask him to provide evidence of the fraudulent votes in a letter sent the same month.

Joining Finchem at the Monday’s voter integrity meeting were Majority Whip Rep. Leo Biasiucci (R-Lake Havasu City) and Senate Majority Whip Sonny Borrelli (R-Lake Havasu City).

“Our elections are a system, and systems require active maintenance,” Biasiucci said in a statement. “Without attention to detail, the bureaucratic machine inevitably runs amok. We are elected to identify defects and fix them.”

The Arizona Republic noted that Finchem's meeting was not authorized by the speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives nor the president of the Senate. None of the witnesses were placed under oath.