Security gates left unlocked and unmonitored. Software updates so flawed they reverted to old systems. Volunteers on the floor brandishing pens with blue or black ink, the same colors voters used to mark ballots. These are just some of the security and quality-control violations Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs documented during a recent tour of the Maricopa County recount effort.
On a website debuted Wednesday–probably not coincidentally the same day she announced a campaign for the 2022 governor’s race–Hobbs and election security experts listed more than a dozen significant problems with the process and security of the recount.
“The effort to hand-count the 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County during the 2020 Presidential Election resumed on May 24, after a weeklong pause,” the website states. “Observers on behalf of the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office continued to note problematic practices, changing policies, and security threats that have plagued this exercise from the start.”
Among the problems:
- Volunteers are allowed to bring firearms into the arena where the recount is occuring, as long as they are concealed;
- External doors to the arena were left unlocked and propped open, allowing observers to enter and exit without checking in;
- While the doors were unattended, confidential material including a procedure manual from the company that was contracted by Cyber Ninjas to run the audit, Wake TSI, was left unattended at a check-in table; and
- A Republican state senator was given free rein to wander the recount operation with a blue or black ink pen, paper and her cell phone, all of which are prohibited on the floor.
In another episode, audit co-chair Randy Pullen, former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party, told a volunteer that the pink shirt he was wearing made him “look like a transgender.”