Poll Observer: ‘Large Percentage’ of People Who ‘Just Moved’ to Arizona Voted

Poll Observer: ‘Large Percentage’ of People Who ‘Just Moved’ to Arizona Voted
A Maricopa County Elections Department staff member counts ballots in Phoenix, Ariz., on Oct. 31, 2020. (Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images)
Jack Phillips
11/30/2020
Updated:
11/30/2020

A woman who said she worked as a volunteer poll observer in Arizona’s Pima County claimed she was told by election officials to allow people to vote who may not have been properly registered to vote in Arizona on Election Day.

“I was having to allow people to vote who literally had just moved here. A large percentage had addresses from two apartment complexes,” Anna Orth told GOP Arizona State legislators on Monday.

Orth remarked that “many” of these individuals were “residents for not more than a month.”

In another instance, Orth was refused entry to a room where problematic ballots were taken to be duplicated and couldn’t observe the process, she claimed. Overall, she estimated that approximately “2,000 ballots” were duplicated in that way.

Orth did not say the name of the polling station that she observed. Trump’s team has not responded to a request for comment about those details.

According to Pima County’s elections website, people can vote if they have “live[d] within Pima County at least 29 days prior to the general election.”

These people, she said, had “out-of-state drivers licenses” but attempted to show proof they could vote by presenting an “electric bill” or another kind of bill that suggested they lived in the precinct.

In the hearing, Orth also said she spoke to a Democratic poll observer who claimed he was from Los Angeles and told her “he was there to turn Arizona blue.”

“We’re here specifically to turn this precinct blue. This is one of our problem ones. I came from another precinct in Maricopa [County],” she recalled the man telling her. There was a group of them, the woman added.

The man’s job, Orth said, was to make sure that anyone who was turned away from voting could vote. When questioned further, the man allegedly said he is in contact with several lawyers to make sure of that, according to Orth, who said she submitted an affidavit about her claims.

She was there in a bid to bolster President Donald Trump’s legal team as they push GOP-led state Senates in battleground states to reclaim their constitutional authority to certify electors. A similar event was held last week in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania—also with witnesses who claimed they saw fraud or irregularities.

Christopher J. Roads, the chief deputy recorder in Pima County, told the Epoch Times that “under Arizona law, a voter who is registered in one precinct but has moved without updating their address, is required to vote by provisional ballot at the polling place for their new address even if they just recently moved.”

Roads further noted that in the state, anyone who shows up at a polling place “is permitted to cast a provisional ballot” if they’re eligible.

“If the vote is valid, the envelope will be opened and the ballot counted. If the voter is not eligible to vote at that site, the ballot is invalid and the envelope remains sealed and the ballot is never counted,” he explained.

Arizona’s secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, has said that Trump’s team’s claims about voter fraud and irregularities are not accurate. Other secretaries of state in places like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Georgia said they’ve also seen no evidence.

The Department of Homeland Security’s cybersecurity agency said earlier this month that the Nov. 3 election was the “most secure” one in U.S. history, saying there is no evidence the election was compromised by foreign or internal actors.

Jack Phillips is a breaking news reporter with 15 years experience who started as a local New York City reporter. Having joined The Epoch Times' news team in 2009, Jack was born and raised near Modesto in California's Central Valley. Follow him on X: https://twitter.com/jackphillips5
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