Have you seen this viral video?  The people sharing it are lying to you.
So here we go, defusing a new election ‘bombshell’ that’s a lot like the old ‘bombshells.’🧵 Claim: "Maricopa County did secret testing of tabulation equipment. Just look at this video!"

Facts: If it was a secret, why did we livestream it? That's the opposite of secret. People interested in the facts can find those in our May 10 court filing. Excerpt below:

NEW: County responds to AG letter about Nov. election saying all laws were followed & all voters had the opportunity to legally and securely cast their ballot.
Legal response: elections.maricopa.gov/asset/jcr:474f…
Details: elections.maricopa.gov/asset/jcr:d294…
Key points: 🧵⬇️ 1)County’s Door 3 procedures are lawful & every single one of the 16,724 legal ballots deposited in secure Door 3 on Election Day was counted.

BOMBSHELL 🧵: We’ve noticed that election misinformation seems to spread more widely when there’s incendiary language & out-of-context graphics, pictures, or videos. So we are going to EXPOSE the UNBELIEVABLE facts as election workers are CAUGHT IN THE ACT following the law. ⬇️ What happens in the tabulation center isn’t a state secret. Cameras are rolling throughout, political party observers are present, and our elections directors are telling them what’s happening as it is happening.

VOTERS: All legal votes will be counted. Your vote will count equally whether it is reported first, last, or somewhere in between. Thank you for participating. CANDIDATES: All legal votes will be counted, including votes for you. If you have the most votes in the final tally, you will be elected. If you do not have the most votes, you will have lost your election.

Here's an update 🧵 on the printer issue with some Vote Center ballots yesterday:

WHAT’S IMPORTANT: All ballots affected will be counted securely and accurately. WHAT HAPPENED: An issue with printers impacting an estimated 17,000 ballots (or less than 7% of Election Day votes).

Some ballots could not be read by the tabulators because the printers did not produce dark enough timing marks on ballots.

What happens after Vote Centers close their doors? An all-night process with employees and volunteers across the political spectrum working to report results and prepare early ballots requiring signature verification. 👇 Poll workers close down voting locations after 7 PM. Depending on any lines, the process can vary, with most taking anywhere from 30-60 minutes.

From how long it takes to get all ballots counted to concerns about tabulation equipment– we anticipate false election narratives to spread in the coming days.

That's why today, we're getting ahead of it.

⬇️ a thread of election myths & facts from today's press conference: Myth: Not having 100% of ballots counted on election night = fraud/incompetence.

Fact: The count takes time because we follow state laws, like the 5-day signature curing period. More:

https://twitter.com/maricopacounty/status/1585415045424754688?s=20&t=LyfQegNczHBlHvJapAQ5UA

Looks like there’s a lot of interest in Maricopa County #elections again. Let’s take some questions and comments from the audience.
1/ It is precisely because of law and order that we don’t finish tabulation until several days after the election. Please see ARS 16-550. Or would you prefer us to tell legitimate registered voters that we’re choosing not to follow that section of the law?
azleg.gov/ars/16/00550.h…

NEW: Special master report on @maricopavote election equipment finds no evidence of data deletion, purging, destruction of evidence, or obstruction of Senate 'audit.'
READ THE REPORT: maricopa.gov/DocumentCenter…
🧵👇 The report also confirms the county election system was not connected to internet, a long-debunked claim that Senate contractors included in their final report & which led to other false claims about the 2020 election.

NEW: Chairman Gates details Maricopa County's cooperation with AG investigation and says the latest election-related subpoena is based on faulty information.
Read the full statement: content.govdelivery.com/accounts/AZMAR…
🧵👇 The "study" Senator Townsend references as grounds for her subpoena has been thoroughly discredited. It compares voter information that is supposed to be protected to unrelated documents and is in no way a viable method for comparing signatures.

On claims thousands of people may have illegally voted because they moved prior to or during the Election Cycle:
1. For decades, federal & state laws have recognized that voters move & have provided protections for them to lawfully cast a ballot.
🧵⬇️ 2. Cyber Ninjas used soft matching techniques. They didn’t have SSN’s or full date of birth. This is a problem because people share names, etc.

On claims of deleted files, databases, logs: In some cases, the items that contractors could not find were items the Senate did not subpoena and therefore wouldn’t have. 1/5 In other cases, the “missing” data was exactly where it was supposed to be, as proven by copies of the EMS server & images that the County cloned prior to providing those materials to the Senate. 2/

CORRECTING THE RECORD ON NOV. 2020 ELECTION: We have published our comprehensive response to the Senate/Cyber Ninja #azaudit.

Read the report: JustTheFacts.vote
Read the release: maricopa.gov/CivicAlerts.as…

🧵⬇️ KEY POINTS:
• Canvassed results were accurate
• Fewer than 100 potentially questionable ballots cast out of 2.1 million
• No systemic issues; no races impacted
• @maricopavote followed all federal, state, and local laws

Newly-elected Chairman @billgatesaz is outlining his vision for Maricopa County in 2022. Watch live: youtube.com/maricopacounty…. This thread will share highlights. @billgatesaz Gates says the community has been tested “by a novel virus that has not just threatened our health, but our compassion for one another… an uncertain labor market and rising prices… and the greatest single challenge to our democracy in my lifetime and likely yours."

BREAKING: @maricopavote responds to faulty assumptions & inaccurate claims made by Cyber Ninjas and other Senate contractors re: the Nov. election. 𝐌𝐚𝐣𝐨𝐫 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐢𝐦𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐛𝐮𝐧𝐤𝐞𝐝.
Key points:🧵⬇️ • 𝐍𝐨 𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐨𝐟 𝐝𝐨𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐯𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠. Contractors don't understand election procedures & laws.
• 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐩𝐮𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐝. All 2020 election files were archived & safely secured. Senate never subpoenaed archives & made assumptions based on incomplete info.

NEW: In the coming weeks, Maricopa County will be producing a comprehensive report addressing all of the allegations and questions from the Arizona Senate's final audit report. We will take the time needed to be thorough & accurate. #AZAudit
More: content.govdelivery.com/accounts/AZMAR…
🧵⬇️ On Friday, the County provided real-time responses to many of the allegations made by the Senate’s contractors. This technical report will provide a deeper dive into the County's early ballot and tabulation processes.

https://twitter.com/maricopacounty/status/1441490472430489615?s=20

https://twitter.com/maricopacounty/status/1441470629538983945?s=20

NEW: Here’s round two of our #FactCheck on several of the claims Cyber Ninjas identified as the most serious in their report: 🧵 CLAIM: Election management database purged

BOTTOM LINE: This is misleading. Nothing was purged. Cyber Ninjas don’t understand the business of elections. We can't keep everything on the EMS server because it has storage limits.

NEW: After a preliminary review of the draft #azaudit report, we can provide a #FactCheck on several of the claims Cyber Ninjas identified as the most serious in their report:
🧵⬇️ CLAIM: 23,344 mail-in ballots voted from a prior address.

BOTTOM LINE: Cyber Ninjas still don’t understand this is legal under federal election law. To label it a “critical” concern is either intentionally misleading or staggeringly ignorant. AZ senators should know this too.

DID YOU KNOW? A survey of more than 75,000 voters conducted by @maricopavote and @recordersoffice following the November 2020 General Election found widespread satisfaction and trust in the system.
maricopa.gov/DocumentCenter… CHECKS AND BALANCES: In each of the three hand counts performed during 2020, the Republican, Democrat, and Libertarian appointees found a 100% match to the tabulation equipment results.

A thread about election audits ahead of the Senate hearing today:
🧵⬇️ Good audits built trust. B/c they are conducted by experienced professionals who use well-defined, proven processes which produce reproducible results, good election audits provide quantifiable proof that that reported results match the canvass. Board members support good audits.

NEW: Board votes to approve an agreement with the AZ Senate that keeps county routers & other sensitive materials out of the hands of Cyber Ninjas. The agreement also protects taxpayers and ends a legal dispute over the Senate’s ongoing election review. Per Chairman @jacksellers: "The Cyber Ninjas will never be able to touch the routers or access our data. An independent third party can confirm what we've always said: the election equipment was not connected to the internet and no vote switching occurred.