written by Jim Ferris. Originally published in The Payson News
The problem we have with elections is inherent in the elements of the process; from registration to mail-in voting to vote tabulators.
Let’s start with voter registration. Anyone can obtain blank registration forms and solicit people to fill out a registration form. That same solicitor can turn the registration form into the County Recorder’s Office. There is no assessment or determination made as to the character of the solicitor. This person could be a felon and a fanatical Party partisan hack. Solicitors for voter registrations do not have to be certified, licensed, or registered as a voter registration solicitor. If they are performing a function that is in part a function of the County Recorder, then they should be credentialed in some fashion and held accountable to accurate and honest representations of their work.
The voter registrant may register on-line. In those cases, who checks citizenship, personal identification, and proof of residency? Are driver license numbers actually checked? What is stopping potential fraudulent registrants from registering in multiple states? When voter applications are received by the various county recorders, are they being verified for the accuracy of information provided? How is the address verified?
Are people that solicit and gather voter registrations liable and accountable for the accuracy of the information provided on the registrations? We do not know if solicitors are giving honest and accurate information to the registrants or accurate and honest answers to questions of Arizona State law. What will prevent or stop fraudulent registrations from being submitted? What laws exist that would allow for the prosecution of submitting fraudulent voter registrations?
Once voter registrations are submitted, that registrant’s information is recorded in the county’s voter roll records and most likely they will receive a ballot which will be mailed to the address on the voter registration form. The ballot that will go out to the listed address is not coded, has no watermarks, and can be easily duplicated. The same person that filled out the fraudulent registration can easily duplicate the signature on the fraudulent application. Once the fraudulent elector is established a fraudulent vote will be submitted for years to come. Gila County could order ballots with watermarks embedded in the paper, but they don’t. Why not? So, you could have hundreds if not a thousand fraudulent ballots being mailed out in Gila County. We could have hundreds of thousands of fraudulent ballots floating around in Maricopa County.
Once these fraudulent ballots are mailed out the fraud is consummated by simply being mailed back in or dropped off at a drop box. Who or how would anyone be aware of the fraud? And if there was a means of catching and capturing any fraudulent ballots, who is going to investigate, prosecute, and adjudicate this criminal activity? As we see on a national level, selective investigation and prosecution will be the norm.
You might come back with a rebuff such as, well it’s highly unlikely any fraud is taking place – there’s no evidence. BS, the evidence is purposely ignored and not investigated. I personally know people that have gone out and randomly canvassed the vote here in Gila County. They visited more than fifty households. They found that approximately seventy-five plus percent of the residences, where they were able to interview the occupants, had discrepancies in the voter roll for that property. Generally, they found that there were people that were registered to vote at those properties that have never or no longer lived there. On occasion there was a registered voter that had the same last name as the occupants, but the occupants did not know the person. Many residences had multiple voters registered to the property that did not live there. There were people on the voter rolls that have been dead for twelve years. What is happening to these ballots after being sent out? We have to believe that a ballot is mailed to everyone that is on the voter rolls and have requested a mail-in ballot.
With an approximate seventy-five percent error rate, how many errant and fraudulent ballots are floating around out there. Is this a problem perpetrated by intentional mass fraud or is it the failure of our County Recorder to verify and clean up the voter rolls? – Or a combination of both? Is this why the County has refused to comply with Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests?
Similar canvassing has been done in other Arizona counties and in other States with similar outcomes in each case. Liz Harris and a group of patriots took to the streets of Arizona with a map in hand, a questionnaire, and a plan for reporting and documenting what they found.
The results were shocking. Just a couple highlights from the incredible report:
34% of the homes canvassed were found to have at least one registered voter that did not live at the address associated with the Maricopa County Record voter rolls. To date, over 1500 sworn affidavits have been signed.
The 1/11/21 Maricopa County Recorder voter rolls show 2,034 records registered to a single address; 144 of them voted in the 2020 general election. 56% of them voted absentee. A total of 356 of them were sent ballots.
So, please don’t tell me we don’t have a problem.
Another problem is the vote tabulating machines. These machines are programmed by who? The machine vendor? A third-party software contractor? The software providers claim that their software is proprietary and cannot be audited by a third party. What? Computer programming can include instructions that tell the machine to perform certain functions during a specified time period and then erase the program instructions when the function is completed. Was the Gila County vote tabulator properly certified by a qualified tester? I doubt that it was properly tested and certified because a FOIA request for the documentation of certification has been withheld.
Something is very wrong. If we do not rectify this issue now, we will never have confidence that our elections are honest and fair. Let’s face it, we will no longer have a country.
The only real solution is to have one vote, on one day, at the voters’ precinct location, and with the proper identification. Votes will be hand-counted, and the results submitted to the county recorder’s office. There could be allowances for absentee voting at the county recorder’s office. Recorder office personnel can also be permitted to go to permanent care facilities to have the residents vote. Anyone caught committing fraud should and would be severely punished.
Then, and only then, would we have a reasonable degree of confidence in our election process.
