There were 3,420,565 ballots cast in 2020 in Arizona and if Mark Finchem had his way, every single one of them could be counted by hand.
As secretary of state, he would have unilateral authority to make that happen.
While the secretary of state oversees Arizonas elections, many of the roles duties are ministerial or dependent on other branches of government. The actual elections are conducted and managed by the states 15 counties, and its officials there who are responsible for tallying votes. And election laws are written by the state legislature and must be approved by the governor.
But state law gives sweeping powers to the secretary of state to regulate election equipment. The secretary has the ability to say what standards any equipment must meet, to certify equipment that meets those standards and to decertify any equipment that doesnt.
Finchem, a state legislator from Oro Valley who is the GOP nominee for secretary of state, has long made it clear that he does not support the use of machine tabulation to count votes. Earlier this year, he and Republican gubernatorial nominee Kari Lake even filed a federal lawsuit to try to stop their use in the state.
As secretary of state, he could force counties to count ballots by hand if he decertified the election machines setting up a nightmare scenario for elections officials.
Hand counting all the ballots in Arizona is impossible, said Jennnifer Marson, the executive director of the Arizona Association of Counties. Its impossible, its impossible.
In Maricopa County alone in 2020, there were 74 selections for voters to choose from on the smallest version of the ballot sent out, she said. When multiplied by the number of ballots cast, that equates to over 154 million selections that would need to be counted and tallied by hand. Statewide, the number is estimated to be around 201 million, Marson said.
If youre going to do a hand count, youre probably going to have to hand count twice, Marson said, adding that the logistics of a hand count on such a massive scale are unknown. Literally, how will they do it? Will they tick marks on paper? Will they use Excel? Because that is a machine.
Then there are questions of how much it would cost to hire enough workers to manually tally every vote in every race on millions of ballots.
And aside from being less accurate than electronic tabulation machines, hand-counting is slow and it could jeopardize the ability of counties to canvass their elections in the 20 days that state law allows. State law requires a canvass of legislative and statewide elections within 27 days, a task that could be difficult if not impossible.
The possibility for error is massive. Its massive when you have humans doing it, Marson said. They lose their place, they have to start over.
Finchem has already hinted at his intentions to change the standards for election machines to something that would be impossible to meet.
I do not believe that we should be using equipment that we cannot inspect the software, Finchem said in a recent interview with CBS News. In the lawsuit with Lake, trying to inspect the software on the machines currently used was a key part of their litigation.
Finchem said he would seek to prohibit the use of voting equipment with software that is not open source.
But there is no such election equipment. All election equipment used in Arizona must first be certified by the federal Election Assistance Commission. And because the equipment is considered critical infrastructure, none of it uses open-source software.
The U.S. Election Assistance Commission, which certifies some election equipment in the United States, has not had any open source software submitted for certification through their Testing and Certification program, according to EAC spokesperson Kristen Muthig. If any open source software was submitted, it would be evaluated in the same way any other system is evaluated, Muthig said.
Arizona law establishes a voting equipment certification committee, but it doesnt have any real power. All three of its members are appointed by the secretary of state, and it is tasked with making recommendations about electronic voting and tabulation machines to the secretary of state.
And while the secretary of state is required to consult with this committee for developing standards to decertify machines, determining what those standards will be is solely the secretary of states duty. If he or she wants to ignore the committees recommendations, nothing in law stops that from happening.
Based on those standards, the secretary of state then can revoke the certification of any device already in use that doesnt comply and ban the use of them for up to five years.
Since the 2020 election, Finchem has opposed electronic ballot tabulators and has sought to prohibit their use. In the interview with CBS, Finchem cited long debunked claims that Dominion Voting Systems machines in Colorado had high error rates, among other claims.
He also reiterated that he would follow the law.
Finchem did not respond to a request for comment.
His stance is part of a growing movement, driven by election fraud conspiracy theorists across the country, that aims to push for the total ban of electronic voting equipment and move to hand counts of ballots. Doing so just isnt possible in many cases, experts say.
It is extremely unrealistic in all but the tiniest of jurisdictions, Gowri Ramachandran, senior counsel in the Brennan Centers Democracy program, told the Arizona Mirror. Ramachandran said that hand counts generally are part of the recount process and usually include counting one contest, not every race on every ballot.
Many of the groups pushing for hand counts also have been pushing for a one day, one vote style of voting as well that would do away with early voting. A bill that was killed by Arizona Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers and co-sponsored by Finchem would have done just that. It also would have required all ballots in Arizona to be counted by hand within 24 hours, among many other provisions.
In that scenario, Marson said that the state would likely need 8,000 more poll workers and another 8,000 to be hand counters.
Additionally, hand counting is rife for error and moving to machine tabulation was because of this issue, Marson said.
In most cases, hand counts are performed as a way to double-check the performance of a machine tabulator or when a race is extremely close. But those instances are still generally for one race.
It is a way of making sure there are no programming errors, Ramachandran said. Doing those routine audits to catch any problems is one of the best practices.
In Arizona, state law requires audits of the machines performance be done both before and after an election. And a sample of ballots cast in the election is audited by hand to ensure the electronic count is accurate.
Maricopa County had nine tabulators for the August primary election and will have 16 for next months general election, according to Maricopa County Elections Department spokeswoman Megan Gilbertson.
One county is already considering hand counting all the ballots it will see cast in its election this year, Cochise County. The effort is being pushed in part by county supervisor Peggy Judd who attended the Jan. 6 Capitol riot and posted QAnon conspiracy theories on her now defunct Facebook page.
While the Cochise County Board of Supervisors approved the push in a vote Tuesday, attorneys for the board disapproved and said no to the effort.
But this hasnt stopped conspiracy theorists even those in power from pushing to ban the machines.
On Oct. 1, Arizona Corporation Commissioner Jim OConnor hosted some of the loudest voices in the ban the machines movement at a movie theater in Tempe.
These machines are from the devil, OConnor, whose office has no oversight of elections, said to the small crowd.
Earlier in the week, OConnor had used his position as an Arizona Corporation Commissioner to mail out flyers for the event to county recorders across the state.
The event was a whos who of election deniers who have taken aim at election equipment in Arizona and across the country, spreading falsehoods about their performance to explain how Trump lost in 2020. Chief among them was former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters, who is currently facing 10 felony charges after she allowed conspiracy theorists to copy and access sensitive voting software.
Peters lamented that the judge in her case was using his political power to keep her from anything dealing with elections.
My only crime is for backing up the election files, Peters claimed, communicating to the crowd via Zoom. Peters also celebrated that, after the breach was discovered, the voting equipment was decertified by the state something she is on the hook to pay for.
I was thinking, great, take them out, we will just hand-count everything, Peters said. There is no reason we cant hand count these ballots.
OConnor, who in September said he wanted to bring in 13 experts to testify to the Corporation Commission about voting machines, blamed the courts for not wanting to take on the political question and compared the situation to Nazi Germany.
It appears that all the courts in our states at the federal and state level dont want to handle the political question, OConnor said after a speaker said their case regarding election fraud was dismissed by the courts. Theyre all sitting scared, thinking, What are the people gonna do? So, theyre creating an Adolf Hitler-like (atmosphere), controlling speech
The event also included a litany of other speakers, such as election fraud fabulist Jovan Hutton Pulitzer.
And State Sen. Sonny Borelli, R-Lake Havasu, told the crowd that the movement he, Finchem and state Rep. Leo Biasucci led began when Democrat Adrian Fontes was elected Maricopa County Recorder in 2016. Fontes is Finchems opponent for secretary of state.
Borrelli effusively praised the idea of requiring Arizona ballots to be counted by hand, adding that he was not fond of mail-in voting either.
The event ended in a prayer, during which OConnor asked for courage for the supervisors and county elected officials.
These people are frightened for their lives and for their families, because you know who is running their show the devil, OConnor said.
***CORRECTION: This story has been corrected to reflect that theU.S. Election Assistance Commission certifies some, not all, of the election equipment in the country.
Read more:
Finchem wants to ban voting machines and do hand counts, that is 'unrealistic' - Arizona Mirror
- Research, Evaluation and Learning at the International Rescue Committee - World - ReliefWeb [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- Conserving Biodiversity with AI - BBN Times [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- DevOps Fundamentals You Ever Wanted To Know - hackernoon.com [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- Another Perspective on Evictions - Bacon's Rebellion [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- Amitabh Bachchan on fans alternate job suggestion: My job is now insured - The Indian Express [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- Will You Soon Download Packaging Machine Controls from the Internet? - Packaging Digest [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- 5 free resources every data scientist should start using today - The Next Web [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- Who's hoping to make an Epic impact on Green Bay area music scene with a new concert venue? | Streetwise - Green Bay Press Gazette [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- Industrial robots are dominating but are they safe from cyber-attacks? - TechHQ [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- Friday Rant - Rise of the Rogue-Bots? - Diginomica [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- Important Reasons Why You Should Pick RoR As Your Web-Based Development Project - Customer Think [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- Portrait of the software developer as an artist - ComputerWeekly.com [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- Python may be your safest bet for a career in coding - Gadgets Now [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- 1Password is coming to Linux - ZDNet [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- IBM creates an open source tool to simplify API documentation - TechRepublic [Last Updated On: August 10th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 10th, 2020]
- Mastercard : Accelerate Ignites Next Generation of Fintech Disruptors and Partners to Build the Future of Commerce - Marketscreener.com [Last Updated On: August 12th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 12th, 2020]
- Expanding the Universe of Haptics | by Lofelt | Aug, 2020 - Medium [Last Updated On: August 12th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 12th, 2020]
- UX Designer Salary: 5 Important Things to Know - Dice Insights [Last Updated On: August 12th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 12th, 2020]
- Persistent memory reshaping advanced analytics to improve customer experiences - IT World Canada [Last Updated On: August 12th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 12th, 2020]
- NextCorps and SecondMuse Open Application Period for Programs that Help Climate Technology Startups Accelerate Hardware Manufacturing - GlobeNewswire [Last Updated On: August 12th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 12th, 2020]
- Buried deep in the ice is the GitHub code vault humanity's safeguard against devastation - ABC News [Last Updated On: August 12th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 12th, 2020]
- Top 12 Most Used Tools By Developers In 2020 - Analytics India Magazine [Last Updated On: August 12th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 12th, 2020]
- Facebook's React 17 JavaScript library: Here's why its top feature is 'no new features' - ZDNet [Last Updated On: August 12th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 12th, 2020]
- CORRECTING and REPLACING Anyscale Hosts Inaugural Ray Summit on Scalable Python and Scalable Machine Learning - Business Wire [Last Updated On: August 12th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 12th, 2020]
- Google: Here's how much we give to open source through our GitHub activity - ZDNet [Last Updated On: August 12th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 12th, 2020]
- How Chriselle Lim And Joan Nguyen Created Bmo, The Coworking Space And Virtual Classroom Of The Future (With A Childcare Twist) - Forbes [Last Updated On: August 13th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 13th, 2020]
- How Will Public Libraries Adapt To New School Year Norms? - Book Riot [Last Updated On: August 13th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 13th, 2020]
- Google: We'll test hiding the full URL in Chrome 86 to combat phishing - ZDNet [Last Updated On: August 13th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 13th, 2020]
- How to install Python 3 and PIP 3 on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS - Linux Shout - H2S Media [Last Updated On: August 13th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 13th, 2020]
- What are Bitcoin Wallets: Everything You Need to Know - Programming Insider [Last Updated On: August 13th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 13th, 2020]
- JSHint is Now Free Software after Updating License to MIT Expat - WP Tavern [Last Updated On: August 13th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 13th, 2020]
- How to learn JavaScript: These are the best online courses - Mashable [Last Updated On: August 13th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 13th, 2020]
- What developers need to know about inter-blockchain communication - ComputerWeekly.com [Last Updated On: August 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 14th, 2020]
- Introducing the CDK construct library for the serverless LAMP stack - idk.dev [Last Updated On: August 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 14th, 2020]
- IBM asked software developers to take on the wrath of Mother Nature - The Drum [Last Updated On: August 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 14th, 2020]
- Aspire Technology Launches First Truly Secure Public Blockchain for Creation of Digital Assets - GlobeNewswire [Last Updated On: August 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 14th, 2020]
- GM Creates And Shares New Workplace Safety Technologies - Pulse 2.0 [Last Updated On: August 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 14th, 2020]
- Key Considerations and Tools for IP Protection of Computer Programs in Europe and Beyond - Lexology [Last Updated On: August 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 14th, 2020]
- The state of application security: What the statistics tell us - CSO Online [Last Updated On: August 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 14th, 2020]
- Open Source: What's the delay on the former high/middle school on North Mulberry? - knoxpages.com [Last Updated On: August 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 14th, 2020]
- The Risks Associated with OSS and How to Mitigate Them - Security Boulevard [Last Updated On: August 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 14th, 2020]
- news digest: Microsoft launches open source website, TensorFlow Recorder released, and Stackery brings serverless to the Jamstack - SD Times -... [Last Updated On: August 14th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 14th, 2020]
- Build Your Own PaaS with Crossplane: Kubernetes, OAM, and Core Workflows - InfoQ.com [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 17th, 2020]
- ISRO Is Recruiting For Vacancies with Salary Upto Rs 54000: How to Apply - The Better India [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 17th, 2020]
- Does technology increase the problem of racism and discrimination? - TechTarget [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 17th, 2020]
- CORRECTING and REPLACING Anyscale Hosts Inaugural Ray Summit on Scalable Python and Scalable Machine Learning - Yahoo Finance [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 17th, 2020]
- In the City: Take advantage of open recreation, cultural and park amenities - Coloradoan [Last Updated On: August 17th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 17th, 2020]
- Exploring the future of modern software development - ComputerWeekly.com [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- Hadoop Developer Interview Questions: What to Know to Land the Job - Dice Insights [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- SiFive Opens Business Unit to Build Chips With Arm and RISC-V Inside - Electronic Design [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- Use Pulumi and Azure DevOps to deploy infrastructure as code - TechTarget [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- Why ASP.NET Core Is Regarded As One Of The Best Frameworks For Building Highly Scalable And Modern Web Applications - WhaTech [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- NITK figures 4th in Google Summer of Code ranking - BusinessLine [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- Learn More About Dynamo for Revit: Features, Functions, and News - ArchDaily [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- Linux Foundation showcases the greater good of open source - ComputerWeekly.com [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- Programming language Kotlin 1.4 is out: This is how it's improved quality and performance - ZDNet [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- Top 10 Languages That Paid Highest Salaries Worldwide In 2020 - Analytics India Magazine [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- Programming language Rust: Mozilla job cuts have hit us badly but here's how we'll survive - ZDNet [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- In-App Bidding Gathers Steam, But Adoption Looks Nothing Like Header Bidding On The Web - AdExchanger [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- 13 thoughts on Fitting Snake Into A QR Code - Hackaday [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- Newham test and trace app was designed by man who grew up in the borough - Newham Recorder [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- 'Trapped in a code' the fight over our algorithmic future - Open Democracy [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- Telegram launches one-on-one video calls on iOS and Android - The Verge [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- AWS Controllers for Kubernetes Will Be A 'Boon For Developers' - CRN: Technology news for channel partners and solution providers [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- Coding within company constraints - ComputerWeekly.com [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- Open Source and Open Standards: The Recipe for Success Featured - The Fast Mode [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- How Intel helped give the worlds first cyborg a voice - The Next Web [Last Updated On: August 21st, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 21st, 2020]
- Tiger Woods, Rory McIlroy near bottom of field at The Northern Trust - ESPN [Last Updated On: August 22nd, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 22nd, 2020]
- Intel Owl OSINT tool automates the intel-gathering process using a single API - The Daily Swig [Last Updated On: August 22nd, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 22nd, 2020]
- IOTA Foundation presents the current projects in the mobility industry - Crypto News Flash [Last Updated On: August 22nd, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 22nd, 2020]
- How 'Fortnite' and 'Second Life' Shaped the Future of Indian Market - Santa Fe Reporter [Last Updated On: August 22nd, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 22nd, 2020]
- Apple Enters $ 2 Trillion Club, Github's Chinese Counterpart And More In This Week's Top News - Analytics India Magazine [Last Updated On: August 22nd, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 22nd, 2020]
- As world grapples with pandemic, schools are the epicenter - ABC News [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- Why Businesses Should Embrace Modernizing Their Legacy Applications - TechBullion [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- Is It Time To Rename RPG? - IT Jungle [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- Phantasy Star Online programmers on breaking new ground and their Diablo-style isometric prototype - Polygon [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- How To Learn To Program In Python By Playing Videogames - Analytics India Magazine [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- New Microsoft program to help develop the quantum computing workforce of the future in India - Microsoft [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- How the Docker Revolution Will Change Your Programming, Part 1 - Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]
- The art of developing happy customers - ComputerWeekly.com [Last Updated On: August 24th, 2020] [Originally Added On: August 24th, 2020]