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Aug. 10, 2021 - Epoch Times

19:33

Lawmakers From 13 States Tour Election Audit - Several Working To Launch Their Own | Facts Matter

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	Good evening.
	Over in Arizona, the election audit is beginning to wrap up.
	It was just announced that the hand recount portion is now complete, and the audit team have shifted their focus to completing the final phase, which is to go back and make sure that every single ballot is authentic.
	However, it looks like the federal government has their own ideas.
	As Merrick Garland, who is the Attorney General, he just issued a very stern message.
	He said that he is doubling the amount of lawyers in his civil rights division to, among several other things, scrutinize election audits.
	And as all of this is taking place, lawmakers from 13 different states from around the country went over to Maricopa County to tour the venue and see what is happening there firsthand.
	Many of them are now looking to launch similar audits in their home states.
	Let's go through all of it together.
	Let's go through all of it together.
	Now let's begin today's discussion over in Arizona.
	But actually, just before we do, as a quick aside, right there at the top of the description box is a link to Epic TV, our brand new no-censorship video platform, where you will find all the awesome Epoch Times video programs, as well as exclusive episodes for our show, Facts Matter.
	In fact, we just published an exclusive episode there a few days ago, And now, let's really head on over to Arizona.
	This is your daily Facts Matter Update, and I'm your host, Roman, from the Epoch Times.
	Now let's begin today's discussion over in Arizona.
	As you likely already know, the large-scale audit of the 2020 election over in Maricopa County has officially been underway for close to two months now.
	And as a part of that audit, the Arizona State Senate Now, yesterday, the audit team announced that they have actually finished the hand recount portion of the audit.
	Here's specifically what they wrote on Twitter.
	Now, in terms of what they meant by the paper examination phase, well, according to Ken Bennett, who is the audit liaison, he said that now that the ballots have been recounted, they are checking the ballots to make sure that they are authentic.
	That includes things like checking to see whether the paper that the ballots were printed on is the official stock paper, checking to see whether the alignment on the front and the back of each ballot is correct, as well as things like this.
	Are there folds in the 1.9 million ballots that came in and out by mail?
	Are alignment marks on the fronts and the backs of the ballots aligning as authentic ballots should?
	Is there a depression in the oval where a human handheld device would have filled in that oval as opposed to an ink-gen printer or a Xerox machine or whatever you might think?
	And so, according to that tweet that we read earlier, it looks like the team is examining about 100,000 ballots every single day, and according to Ken Bennett, they are on track to be finished by the end of this month, by the end of June.
	Now, one thing that you might be wondering, if you're like this gentleman here who sent us this question, is whether the voters themselves are being authenticated.
	In fact, let's read the question together.
	It says, quote...
	Roman, does the audit include voter address and signature verification?
	For example, will a ballot with a return address that's an empty lot or commercial address be thrown out of eligibility to be counted in the audit?
	How about addresses where 10 people supposedly live, but it's a one-bedroom apartment and the person who lives there doesn't know the other nine?
	Can you give us a rundown of the audit specifics like this?
	Thank you for the question.
	The short answer is that originally the audit was going to cover all of this.
	However, due to pushback from the Democrat Party as well as from the federal government, it's not exactly clear whether these two things are going to be done or not.
	To start with, let's discuss the question of address verification.
	In the original scope of work document that was issued by the Cyber Ninjas, which is the firm that's actually leading the audit, They wrote that one of their subcontractors This brought forth a number of significant anomalies suggesting significant problems in the voter rolls.
	So that was done prior to the actual start of the audit.
	So even before the audit began, they had already identified some anomalies.
	And so then, in terms of how they were actually going to investigate these anomalies, here is what they wrote.
	We may utilize precincts that have a high number of anomalies based on publicly available voting data and data from prior canvassing efforts, We're good to go.
	However, it's not exactly clear whether this canvassing has actually taken place or not.
	There have actually been mixed messages from the Arizona Senate as to whether they were actually going to do it or not.
	What happened was that last month, the federal government complained and said that this type of canvassing might actually be a form of voter intimidation.
	To which Karen Fan, the Arizona Senate president, she responded by saying that the canvassing was on hold, but if they were going to do it, they were going to do it the right way.
	In fact, here is what she wrote as a part of her response letter.
	With respect to voter canvassing, the Senate determined several weeks ago that it would indefinitely defer that component of the audit.
	If and to the extent the Senate subsequently decides that canvassing is necessary to the successful completion of the audit, its vendor will implement detailed requirements to ensure that the canvassing is conducted in a manner that complies fully with the commands of the United States Constitution and federal and state civil rights laws.
	She then went on to list seven different specific ways that the canvassers will conduct themselves in order to comply with the law.
	And then she added this.
	If canvassing is necessary to complete the audit, we believe these protocols, which will be reinforced by thorough training programs, would permit the Senate to discharge its legislative oversight and investigative functions without compromising the rights or privacy of any voter.
	And so, as to whether this canvassing has taken place or not, well, we'll likely know at the very end when we read the final report.
	Now, in regards to the second part of that question, the signature verification part, that was something which was actually initially part of the audit.
	In fact, when the audit first began back in April, Ken Bennett, he told media during a press conference that the audit team would be in fact verifying signatures from at least some of the ballots.
	However, the Democrat Party then filed a lawsuit against the auditors, I actually have the settlement agreement right here.
	And as a part of that settlement, the Cyber Ninjas, they agreed to pause the signature verification.
	Here's what the settlement agreement said about this part.
	It said, quote, Now, again, thus far, it's not exactly clear whether they restarted the signature verification process.
	That is something that we'll likely know when we have the final report in hand.
	Now, in terms of when we'll be getting the final report for ourselves so we can look through it, according to the State of Work document that was put together by the Cyber Ninjas before they actually began the audit, They said that the final report will be delivered one week after the other phases of the audit are completed.
	And so, if everything follows the timeline that Ken Bennett laid out, then the audit itself should be finished by the end of this month, by the end of June, and then we can realistically expect to see this final report by the second week of July.
	Now, as we already mentioned in our previous episode, Merrick Garland, who is the Attorney General at the federal level, he recently came out and made a statement which was very critical of these types of election audits.
	Here's what he said as a part of that statement.
	Some jurisdictions, based on disinformation, have utilized abnormal post-election audit methodologies that may put the integrity of the voting process at risk and undermine public confidence in our democracy.
	He then went on to further announce that the Department of Justice will double the number of lawyers in their civil rights division to, among several other things, scrutinize these types of election audits.
	Now the big question is whether the federal government actually has the authority to do this.
	Because according to the election provisions that you can find over in Articles 1 and 2 of the U.S. Constitution, As well as with the Tenth Amendment and the way that it grants all unenumerated rights to the states rather than to the federal government, it would appear, at least at the surface level, that the sole authority to administer anything election-related falls to the states, not the federal government.
	And it looks like Mark Branovich, who is Arizona's Attorney General, he's a Republican, he seems to agree with his viewpoint.
	In fact, he sent this letter right here, he sent this letter right here back to Merrick Garland as a response to his earlier statement.
	Let's go through it together.
	It says, quote, My office is not amused by the Department of Justice's posturing and will not tolerate any effort to undermine or interfere with our state Senate's audit to reassure Arizonans of the accuracy of our elections.
	We stand ready to defend federalism and state sovereignty against any partisan attacks or federal overreach.
	And then Mike Bronovich goes on to explain how our federalist system is set up and how, according to the U.S. Constitution, it is the right of the individual states to handle their own election-related matters.
	Here's what he wrote.
	Quote, It is important to remember that the states created the federal government, not the other way around.
	America's founders intentionally restrained the federal government's constitutional boundaries to ensure each state could flourish in unique ways.
	Now, we here at the Epoch Times, we reached out to the Department of Justice to get a comment on this letter, but we have yet to we reached out to the Department of Justice to get a comment However, we also reached out to Wendy Rogers, who is an Arizona state senator, she's a Republican, and she told us that it is the state legislature who has the power over elections.
	Here's what she said.
	When the Department of Justice says they're going to come and interfere, this is a state's rights issue, and they have no legal authority to do that.
	And four courts have upheld us continuing with this audit.
	Now she mentioned that four courts have upheld this audit, and that is something worth highlighting.
	Because one of the claims that critics of this audit are making, critics like the Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and Attorney General Merrick Garland, both of whom are Democrats, by the way, they're saying that this audit is not secure because it puts voters' information and voter security at risk.
	For instance, here's what Merrick Garland said as a part of his statement.
	However, when the Democrat Party attempted to stop this audit through a lawsuit, the judge in the case dismissed it, saying that the Democrats have not presented substantive proof of either security or privacy violations.
	And the reason that all this is so important, the reason that we are examining so closely what is happening over in Arizona is because it might be the case that similar election audits spring up across this country, modeling themselves on what Arizona has already done.
	In fact, over...
	Oh, sorry.
	Hey Roman, it's me.
	Nah, I'm just kidding.
	I wanted to take a quick moment and introduce our sponsor for today's episode, which is an awesome company called AMAC, or A-M-A-C, and it stands for the Association of Mature American Citizens.
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	Again, you can go over to amac.us forward slash facts matter or just click in the link in the description box below.
	And AMAC, thank you so much for sponsoring our episode.
	Now Roman in the studio, back to you.
	In fact, over the past two weeks, either delegations or individual lawmakers from over 13 different states, they went over to Maricopa County to tour the venue and see what is happening there firsthand.
	In fact, here's how Kelly Ward, who is the chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party, here's how she described it on Twitter.
	Washington, Georgia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Wisconsin, Oklahoma, Alaska, Michigan, South Carolina, and Missouri have all recently visited the first full forensic audit of an American election, 13 states.
	America's audit is soon to be America's audits.
	Arizona is leading the way to election integrity in America.
	And there does seem to be some truth to her statement, given the fact that many of the lawmakers who visited Arizona went on to make statements saying that they would like to see an audit in their home state, and they said that they are willing to push for one.
	For instance, here's what one lawmaker from Utah said after visiting the audit.
	I would love to see an audit conducted in Utah, especially Salt Lake County, that mirrors this audit right here.
	Likewise, a state senator from Virginia said this after touring the audit facility.
	Not only do we need to improve our election process going forward, I think we need in Virginia to have an audit.
	And so I'm hoping that I can inspire some of my Republican colleagues in the Senate to at least hear what I have to say when I go back.
	Likewise, two senators from Pennsylvania they toured the audit facility, And they had a similar sentiment.
	Here's what one of them said.
	Here's what one of them said.
	And in fact, Pennsylvania might be the next state to actually start an audit like this.
	There are, just like in Arizona, their state legislature is currently controlled by Republicans, and they are now currently seriously discussing the possibility of conducting an audit with even their top senator saying that he is in support of the idea.
	Furthermore, over in Pennsylvania, Senator Doug Mestriano, who is one of the senators that visited Arizona, he said that Pennsylvania might see an audit start as early as July.
	Likewise, the chairman of Nevada's Republican Party, he said that even though Nevada's legislature is currently controlled by Democrats, he says that there might be a path to conduct an audit outside of the legislature.
	After visiting Arizona, here's what he said.
	We intend to take and look at every legal option we have of bringing an audit here to Nevada.
	Likewise, a representative from Alaska who visited the audit said this...
	And so, as you can see, the way that Arizona auditors are conducting their forensic audit...
	The way that they're handling ballot security, the way that they're handling the venue security, the way that they're handling pressure from the federal government, and the way that they're handling lawsuits from the opposition, these are all very important because it's not just for Arizona.
	It might potentially provide a blueprint for all the other states which are interested in conducting audits of their own.
	And in terms of what the Arizona audit finds, well, according to Wendy Rogers, who is an Arizona senator, she says that lawmakers have the will to act on anything that is discovered.
	Now, if you would like to read more about this audit out in Arizona, or these other audits that might be potentially springing up across this country, or if you would like to read any of the documents that we went through for yourself, all those links will be down there in the description box below this video for you to check out.
	Now, lastly, as we already mentioned in several previous episodes, on the very same day that Joe Biden was sworn into office, coincidentally, YouTube made the unilateral decision to demonetize our program.
	We can now no longer run any ads before, during, or after our episodes, and the Super Chat feature has just been disabled.
	They essentially are snuffing out our ability to monetize our content, and by the way, that is all even besides the normal type of censorship and throttling that our channel was always experiencing.
	However, we here at the Epic Times, we decided to take action, and we created something very cool.
	It's called Epic TV.
	It's our brand new no-censorship video platform where you can find all of the Epic Times video programs, like The Larry Elder Show, Crossroads with Joshua Phillip, American Thought Leaders, Life and Times, China in Focus, and our show, Facts Matter...
	And on there you will find exclusive episodes that you will not find here on YouTube, largely because of the censorship.
	In fact, a few days ago we published an awesome episode about what's happening over with Fulton County and the possibility of an audit happening there.
	In fact, here's a trailer for that episode.
	The November election, which took place over in Fulton County, Georgia, is under the microscope right now.
	Sworn affidavits from poll workers were so compelling that they convinced a judge to unseal 147,000 absentee ballots in order to investigate them for possible fraud.
	However, at the very last minute, literally one day before it was scheduled to begin, county officials filed motions to dismiss and indefinitely postponed the investigation.
	But that was just the tip of the iceberg.
	Because two days later, a security alarm went off in the building where the physical ballots were being stored.
	Photos from that day show the door to the building was left wide open, and the guards who were supposed to be on duty happened to leave just 20 minutes beforehand, and so the building was left unattended.
	What exactly happened there?
	And amidst all this, the mother and daughter team who were present at the State Farm Arena when ballots were being counted in the middle of the night were just issued notices from the court to come in for an official deposition.
	Let's go through what's happening over in Fulton County together in an exclusive episode of Facts Matter found only on Epic TV. If you want to check out that exclusive episode, the link to Epic TV will be right there at the top of the description box.
	I hope you click on it.
	I hope you check it out.
	And I hope you subscribe, because right now, what America needs more than anything else are informed citizens who are fully aware of the facts and who can make the decisions that are important for the future of our country.
	So again, the link will be right there.
	Hope you check it out.
	And I hope that you join us on this journey of exploring this beautiful world through honest journalism that's based in truth and tradition.
	Now, lastly, if you haven't already, smash that like button for the YouTube algorithm.
	Subscribe to this YouTube channel if you haven't already in order to get this type of honest news content delivered directly into your YouTube feed while you still can.
	Also, follow me if you have an Instagram account on EpicTimesRoman.
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	Now, lastly, until next time, I'm your host, Roman from the Epoch Times.

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