Former Congresswoman Debbie Lesko, upon taking office as a Maricopa County Supervisor Monday, announced plans to audit Maricopa County’s election system.
“It is very important to a lot of my constituents,” she said.
This is a major departure from former Maricopa County officials’ stance that the elections are run with integrity despite major issues in the last three elections. Recall that former Maricopa County Chairman Bill Gates, following the 2022 election, which was stolen from Trump-Endorsed statewide candidates like Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh, said the election “was run extremely well.” This is despite 60% of vote counting machines across Maricopa County breaking down on election day and disenfranchising in-person voters who were mostly Republicans.
This also came after the forensic audit of the 2020 election discovered major discrepancies in ballot chain of custody documentation, mail-in ballot signature verification, and ballot printing, as well as numerous election law violations. While serving in the U.S. House, Lesko was one of the brave 139 Republicans who voted to stop the certification of the stolen 2020 election.
Then, last November, Kari Lake was robbed of victory once again in a race where President Trump and Republicans dominated up and down the ballot. Despite Trump winning the presidential race in Maricopa County by over 70,000 votes, Justin Heap winning the County Recorder’s race by over 80,000 votes, Jerry Sheridan winning the County Sheriff’s race by over 130,000 votes, and other Republicans seeing similar turnout, we’re asked to believe that Kari Lake had a more than 100,000 vote deficit against far-left Democrat Ruben Gallego. The Gateway Pundit reported on the bogus numbers during Maricopa County’s two-week-long vote-counting process that began coming in right when it was believed Lake would take the lead in the race.
Additionally, recall that the top election official in Maricopa County, where over 60% of voters reside, even sued Kari Lake for defamation ahead of the 2024 election, which he oversaw. It was recently revealed in court documents that Richer is a self-proclaimed “anti-MAGA” individual whose life mission, in his own words, is to “make life hell for Kari Lake.” How can anybody trust this guy to run a fair election?
Maricopa County Chairman Thomas Galvin also agreed that the board will audit the election system. However, Galvin is not the best choice to lead this effort as he defended the previous three elections, and he was appointed by former board members, likely because he would not challenge their administration of elections. Galvin was appointed to the board in 2021 after former Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Chucri resigned from office due to The Gateway Pundit’s exclusive reporting on audio tapes where he admitted that the elections are rigged through “multifaceted” election fraud.
Lesko was sworn in as a Supervisor Monday along with Republicans Kate Brophy Mcgee, Mark Stewart, incumbent Thomas Galvin, who was picked to Chair the Board of Supervisors, and Justin Heap as County Recorder. Incumbent Supervisor Steve Gallardo remains the only Democrat election official in Maricopa County.
Incumbent County Attorney Rachel Mitchell and new County Sheriff Republican Jerry Sheridan were also sworn in to serve in their respective roles.
After she was sworn in, Lesko gave a speech outlining her priorities while in office. Among those priorities was election integrity and pushing for a “comprehensive audit of the entire election system in Maricopa County.”
Lesko also said that she and Thomas Galvin had already spoken with the Arizona Senate President, Arizona House Speaker, and the Florida Secretary of State to discuss “the differences between the state’s election system and see if there’s any areas where we can improve.”
WATCH:
Lesko: Another priority is election integrity. It is very important to a lot of my constituents. I will be pushing and have talked to people about it for a comprehensive audit of the entire election system in Maricopa County from a reputable firm.
I’ve already had a conference call; Tom and I have been on it with the Senate President, the Speaker of the House of Arizona, and the Florida Secretary of State, where we have discussed the differences between the state’s election system and see if there’s any areas where we can improve.
Lesko told 12 News’ Brahm Resnik that she wants to “make sure that everything is run right” after he questioned her objection to the 2020 election results in Arizona.
Watch below:
Resnik: Four years ago today, you voted to reject Arizona’s election results. A lot of people can hear you talking now and question your motives. What do you say to them?
Lesko: My motives are very pure. I want to make sure that everything is run right… The constituents want to make sure that our election system is reliable, and I am elected, and that was one of my promises, and that’s what I’m following up on.
Galvin: We’re going to look at reputable companies that know what they’re doing that we can have them peek under the hood and say, you can do X, Y or Z better.
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