Posted on 05/08/2023 9:35:47 AM PDT by Michael.SF.
Pinal County elections chief Virginia Ross had proof of inaccuracies that she didn’t flag before county supervisors certified the November election results, a Votebeat investigation found. Instead, she told them she stood by the numbers — and then collected a $25,000 bonus.
By the time Virginia Ross appeared before Pinal County’s supervisors one last time, she had already sold her house.
The elections director just needed the supervisors to vote “yes” on Nov. 21, finalizing the November election, and she would be on her way to retirement.
“I stand by the results,” she assured them.
A lot hinged on this moment. After a primary election debacle in August, the county manager had brought Ross on to right the ship. The county paid her handsomely: more than $40,000 a month leading up to the election. That’s more than five times what the past two elections directors had made. Plus, she would get a $25,000 bonus if supervisors voted yes.
The supervisors made it easy for her: They didn’t ask her any questions, voting unanimously to certify the results. She got her bonus, and quickly moved to an East Texas town with fewer than 1,000 residents.
It would be another month before Arizona voters learned what internal evidence already showed — that Ross had botched the count in a way that excluded hundreds of votes from the original results, enough to nearly overturn the outcome of a statewide race.
While county officials have repeatedly said the county didn’t know of potential problems with the results before the supervisors’ vote, a Votebeat investigation found that election officials had documented numerous errors counting ballots and witnessed several red flags before the vote. One supervisor publicly said he had heard of problems that could have affected the count. But election officials didn’t resolve the problems, didn’t say anything publicly, and recommended certifying the results anyway.
By reviewing hundreds of internal documents, emails, and text messages as well as publicly-available meeting footage, Votebeat has found that:
Before certifying the results, election officials had documented glaring discrepancies with Election Day ballot counts. For example, in a master spreadsheet they used to monitor the accuracy of results, the number of ballots cast at a polling place was often dozens off from the number eventually counted.
Poll workers did not accurately track ballots at polling places across the county — and county leaders never corrected the numbers, making it harder to ensure accurate results.
An audit board appears not to have reconciled errors before results were certified, a safeguard required by state law.
A half-dozen election experts from other states who reviewed the discrepancies in the county’s reports were shocked Pinal officials didn’t immediately hit the brakes.
“I cannot even fathom seeing those reports, seeing how the numbers were off and not doing everything I could as a leader of the organization — the person that is ultimately responsible for the integrity of the election — to figure out what happened,” said Jennifer Morrell, founder of an elections consulting firm and an expert on post-election reconciliation.
Morrell said she couldn’t believe Ross left before ensuring the results were accurate.
“As a former election administrator, the thing that shocks me is the person that was in charge just walked away without reconciling all of this,” she said. “I can’t believe she just walked away.”
The errors were only made public during December’s statewide recount, required because of tight results in three races. It revealed that Pinal election officials originally failed to tabulate hundreds of ballots cast on Election Day, and also failed to properly count some votes on dozens of others. The new tally nearly overturned the attorney general’s race.
Without the recount, the errors would not have come to light.
The recount process also showed no other Arizona county had made such significant mistakes. In today’s election atmosphere, where even the smallest problems can provoke false claims of fraud or malfeasance, election experts elsewhere told Votebeat that they were surprised by the lack of diligence, especially in a county the size of Pinal, with more than 145,000 ballots cast in the midterm. The errors in the master spreadsheet alone were alarming, Morrell said.
“I can’t imagine being off more than 10 and not panicking,” she said.
It just keeps getting worse for AZ.
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She didn’t “just walk away”-—
SHE FLED-—Big difference
Needs to be criminally charged.
Funny this comes up. My friends company is doing computer systems for Maricopa County Elections currently. He’s not located in Arizona.
Fraud was prevalent in both the 2020 and 2022 Arizona elections. Based upon all the reporting I’ve seen, no one will be able to convince me otherwise. Trump should be President, Lake should be Arizona’s Governor, and Hobbs should be out on her ear. In addition, many election officials should be in jail for election fraud.
Also, the judges that condone election fraud by dismissing the credible accusations and evidence of fraud, should be removed from the bench.
She didn’t “just walk away”-—
SHE FLED-—Big difference
Needs to be criminally charged.
~~~
She wont be.
The only time you get charged is when you say that there are election problems. Then the DOJ marks you. Whether or not there are actually election problems is irrelevant. You MUST NOT say that there are.
She may fear repercussions about dereliction or negligence, but she knows where the real risks are.
And she was only ONE official.
Yep.
If you didn’t read the Votebeat article, you should.
Nobody talked much about this. Very heavy Republican area.
Does this not prove Lake’s claims correct?
Or now do the goalposts shift and it becomes, well, show me more evidence of this degree of corruption in the election process?
I did read the article. What specifically are you referring to? Dis I miss something?
Thanks
Lakes claims are primarily related to Maricopa County (Phoenix area). This is a separate issue at a neighboring county.
Why are you bringing that up?
Cheaper to buy the vote-counter than to buy votes. Somebody is good at math.
Those Zonies need to demand a “do over” for 2020 and 2022. Those weren’t elections. They were Dung Beetle turd rolling olympics.
What was she being paid $40,000.00 per month for? How long was she paid that?
She didn’t “just walk away”-—
SHE FLED-—Big difference
She collected her check
Needs to be criminally charged.
Where are all he criminal charges? I won’t hold my breath.
Yes. She FLED after being BRIBED.
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