The Election Audit Thriller Revealed
What’s more, the catalyst for the audit - Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud and malfeasance - have stirred suspicions that Republicans may be trying to discredit unfavorable election results. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, written or redistributed. Democrats and voting rights advocates have warned that the audit has put ballots at risk of being tampered with. Additionally, the results of the audit did not identify any programming errors that impacted how the audited voting equipment counted votes, Wolfe noted. "Senate President Karen Fann and Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers today called an independent audit of the Dominion software and equipment used by Maricopa County in the 2020 General Election. In a statement last week, Trump seized on a claim that officials had deleted the data as he pushed his conspiracy theory that last year's election was stolen from him. State senators are conducting a hand count of the ballots, as well as an examination of the voting machines and voter data. Ben Cotton, one of the auditing officials, told state senators on Tuesday that the data had been found, The Associated Press reported. State Republican officials, Arizona's secretary of state, and the Justice Department have all raised concerns.
It can’t be, and state senators have said as much. 3. Our response represented a review of the current state of election reform in the legislature. The audit is a standard part of the state’s election certification process. The Commission determined each system approved for use in Wisconsin tabulated votes in accordance with certification standards during the 2018 General Election. State law requires the Commission to conduct audits after each general election to determine the error rate of each type of electronic voting equipment used in Wisconsin. In 2018, the Commission significantly expanded the scope of post-election audits to ensure the integrity of voting systems, requiring audits of voting equipment in 5 percent of the state’s wards, including at least one in each of the 72 counties, and requiring completion of the audits before the Commission certifies the final results. MADISON, WI - Expanded post-election audits in 2018 confirmed that voting equipment in Wisconsin accurately counted the state’s votes, according to a recent report to the Wisconsin Elections Commission. "The 2018 post-election voting equipment audit was the largest audit of its kind undertaken in the State of Wisconsin," Administrator Meagan Wolfe reported to the WEC. ONALASKA, Wis. (WKBT) - Election Audit officials in Onalaska are making sure their voting equipment worked as expected.
Until 2016, Wisconsin state law required that every voting machine in the state comply with federal guidelines. The machine audits will come next. However, it will not change the outcome of the November election," the Secretary of State’s office asserted. What’s different this time, however, is that the audit is being carried out by the state Senate itself. None, however, have uncovered credible evidence to back up the allegations. Democrats and elections experts have expressed grave concern about the audit, arguing in particular that the process has so far lacked transparency and warning that partisan elected officials may be sacrificing accuracy and security in favor of speed and political convenience. On Wednesday, May 5, Hobbs sent a letter to Bennett saying that the audit's procedures were inconsistent with the protocols laid out in the state's election procedures, were not being done by "qualified, unbiased counters," and failed "to adequately protect and document chain of custody of ballots." These conclusions came from observers sent by Hobbs, who only were allowed into the site after a court ordered the Senate to allow their presence.
The Commission is made up of six Commissioners - four appointed directly by the State Senate Majority Leader, Speaker of the Assembly and the Minority Leaders in the State Senate and Assembly. The Wisconsin Elections Commission asked for a random audit of the machines from Onalaska’s 12th ward. The Wisconsin Elections Commission is responsible for administration and enforcement of election laws in Wisconsin. The audit isn’t going to be used to reverse the election results in Arizona. As for the claim that some ballots were suspect because they were "in pristine condition," that appears to have come from an affidavit submitted in a failed lawsuit aimed at overturning the election results in Georgia. Wisconsin’s Election officials say errors are rare and that voters should have confidence in the process. In Arizona, like Georgia, some Republican officials have also said Trump is wrong. "We have so many concerns about this exercise," Hobbs said Monday. Democrats have also raised concerns about past tweets from the company’s chief executive, Doug Logan, spreading conspiracy theories about a stolen election in Arizona.
