Grand Canyon Times

Senate President Karen Fann (R-Prescott) said that the Attorney General Mark Brnovich’s interim report on his investigation in the management of the 2020 general elections in Maricopa County “validates the missteps” earlier revealed by a forensics audit of the election results.

“The attorney general's findings of failure, fraud and potential misconduct during the 2020 election in Maricopa County are not surprising given the lack of compliance and cooperation Maricopa County election officials displayed from the start,” Fann said in a statement in response to Brnovich’s report.

The audit was performed by Florida-based Cyber Ninjas, and the results, minus some sought-after election information withheld by the county, were made public last fall.

According to USA Today, Brnovich's interim report found "serious vulnerabilities" but no evidence of crimes or mass fraud in Maricopa.

In an April 6 letter to Fann, Brnovich said that investigators with his Election Integrity Unit (EIU) spent thousands of hours reviewing the audit report and complaints.

“The EIU’s review has uncovered instances of election fraud by individuals who have been or will be prosecuted for various election crimes,” Brnovich wrote to Fann.

He added that he can’t disclose the nature of the crimes or the specifics concerning civil investigations, since the EIU investigation is ongoing.

In his letter to Fann, Brnovich also noted that Maricopa officials were uncooperative in releasing election information, a complaint registered many times by Fann. The letter also notes the investigation found that election officials were sometimes given less than five seconds to verify voter signatures on file with ballots filed early.

Another finding concerns the number of nullified ballots dropped, even though those filed nearly doubled in 2020.

Brnovich also took note of the $8 million that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg (''Zuckerbucks") funneled through third-party nonprofits to election officials in the state. That practice is now illegal under a newly passed Arizona law.

Fann said that Brnovich’s findings call for a “stronger signature verification system, proper chain of custody procedures on ballot boxes, securing drop box locations, and the need for routine audits of election processes, which are all elements within the system that we are fighting for.”

She said Arizona lawmakers will work on legislative solutions to address the problems.