AZ Republicans echo Kari Lake in claiming election fraud without sharing evidence

Two Republican state senators won't share what they describe as new evidence showing Maricopa County's ballot-tabulation machines were compromised for the 2020 and 2022 elections.

At a Tuesday morning news conference, Sens. Sonny Borrelli and Wendy Rogers declined to name the source of their information. Their claims were quickly disputed by county election officials, who said it was "another example of people not understanding the election system and the data they are reviewing."

Despite the senators' refusal to identify the source of their information, the passages Rogers cited at a morning news conference exactly matched a petition Kari Lake and Mark Finchem filed last week with the U.S. Supreme Court as they continued to argue that vote-counting machines are insecure.

"While this breach has the game-changing magnitude of the Allies' deciphering Germany's ENIGMA machine in World War II, it is far worse," Rogers, R-Flagstaff, said. The breach "leaves the decryption keys bare, in plain sight."

Those words are from an affidavit filed in the Lake-Finchem case by Ben Cotton, founder of CyFIR, an information technology firm hired by the Arizona Senate in 2021 as it pursued its audit of 2020 election results.

What do Borrelli, Rogers say they've found?

Borrelli and Rogers said the report, which is based on data obtained in a public records request, says software used in the county's Dominion vote-counting machines was not certified by the federal Elections Assistance Commission.

Borrelli said the data was "reanalyzed" by retired staffers from the National Security Agency and pointed to problems that he said need to be rectified before this year's primary and general elections. The issue extends beyond Maricopa County to Pima and other counties that use Dominion voting machines, he said.

"What we have here is a breach in security, cybersecurity on our electronic voting systems in our last two elections," Borrelli said.

Rogers said the problem she and Borrelli are highlighting is new evidence of issues with the past two general elections.

"It was recently discovered, recently uncovered," Rogers said.

Neither senator would answer when asked if they believed Donald Trump lost the 2020 presidential election and Kari Lake lost the 2022 Arizona governor's race.

Borrelli, R-Lake Havasu City, said he turned the information over to Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell.

Mitchell's office confirmed receipt of the Cotton affidavit and said Borrelli did not ask for an investigation. However, spokeswoman Jeanine L'Ecuyer said the office's civil division is reviewing the submission.

What do county election officials say?

Maricopa County election officials defended the credibility of the 2020 and 2022 elections, as well as the two elections held this month.

"These are false allegations and another example of people not understanding the election system and the data they are reviewing," communication director Fields Moseley wrote in a statement.

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-228-7566 and follow her on Threads as well as on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @maryjpitzl.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: GOP senators echo Kari Lake using 'evidence' showing election issues