Oathkeeper, Jan. 6 insurrection participant, and candidate for Arizona Secretary of State Mark Finchem has a lot to say on Twitter about drop boxes.
Forget for a moment the tired "Soros" conspiracy, or the fact that the "poll watchers" are also covering up their license plates. (Hmm... maybe people just don't like being targeted by groups who see them as enemies.)
The greatness that came from this ridiculous Tweet from Finchem was when Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer spoke up. Richer, a Republican, has been a strong advocate for our elections, publishing endless articles and videos and sending emails explaining elections processes and why the majority of the claims of fraud aren't even possible under our procedures and systems of checks and balances.
Here is Stephen's excellent series of replies to Finchem's question "what are you doing to secure our votes at these drop boxes?" These points express succinctly just why dropping a ballot in a drop box is just as secure as any other voting option, and how "mules" can't "inject" fake ballots into the system.
Hi Mark.
- ballots must have the appropriate formatting and security marks to be read by tabulator
- ballots be returned in a signed affidavit envelope. We don't accept loose ballots
- Affidavit envelopes have unique bar code that links to voter profile
- Barcode allows us to track ballot
- Only one vote per voter profile
- To have a voter profile, you must register to vote.
- To register to vote, we must be able to confirm identity with the SSA or MVD
- To register to early vote, must have valid address
- All affidavit envelopes are signature verified
- After verification, must go to audit queue
- Only after audit queue is envelope opened by bipartisan team
- That team makes sure only 1 ballot, right style, not damaged
- all processes are logged
- all processes are open to observation by the political parties
- Arizona has been doing no excuse early vote since 1992
- ballot drop box works exactly same as mail vote process that you’ve used for many years, except that picked up directly by bipartisan team of election workers instead of USPS
- means u can drop off as late as 7 pm on Election Day and county doesn’t pay return postage
We are fortunate in Maricopa County to have Stephen speaking up for our elections workers and the voice of the voters.
Want to learn more about our elections?
Correcting the record lays out all the claims from the 2020 Cyber Ninjas "audit" and shares all the facts and data showing our elections were fair and secure.
The Phil in the Blanks video collection explains how some of the most misunderstood elections processes work.
You can also subscribe to the newsletter to learn what's going on in Maricopa County Elections.
Lastly, don't forget to sign up for ballot tracking! You will get texts and/or emails when your ballot is mailed out to you, when it is received back, and when it is signature verified and sent for tabulation!
Vote blue all the way down the ballot so we don't end up with this kind of crAZy in AZ!
