by Corinne Murdock | May 15, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The testimony of a whistleblower from San Luis, a border city in Yuma County, was featured in the 2020 election fraud documentary “2000 Mules.” The inspiration for the documentary title came from the number of alleged “mules” across the five battleground states that visited 10 or more ballot drop boxes during the 2020 election. A “mule” is an individual that delivers harvested ballots to election drop boxes.
In addition to the whistleblower testimony, the documentary presented ballot drop box evidence as proof that widespread election fraud rigged the 2020 election to ensure President Joe Biden’s victory over former President Donald Trump, a belief critics dubbed “The Big Lie.”
The Yuma County whistleblower explained that she worked as a receptionist for an organization that received harvested ballots all week long from various individuals, mostly female, who would come into the office on Fridays for their payment. She explained that it was part of a greater network she called the “Mexican Mafia.”
According to the woman, someone would call periodically to ask how many ballots were brought in to her and if they were already filled out. Then, a woman would come in to review the ballots. Afterwards, the other woman would deliver them in a drop box or ask the whistleblower to deliver them to a local library’s drop box at night because it had no cameras. The whistleblower didn’t have an estimate for how many ballots she dropped off, agreeing that the count could have ranged in the hundreds.
She asserted that ballot harvesting ensured fixed elections long before they took place.
“I don’t even think they know the meaning of what voting is,” said the woman. “[The elections] are fixed. They’ve been fixed. They already know, seriously, who is gonna win the next election before it even happens.”
The whistleblower explained that the people in her area are an easy target because they’re mostly Hispanics unfamiliar with the law.
“They look at [ballot harvesting] as ‘Oh, she’s trying to help us because we’re older, because she’s having someone come and pick it up at my house, because I don’t drive,’” said the woman.
The woman explained that peers dissuaded her from educating the community about ballot harvesting because she would “end up in the trash can in pieces” for subverting the election mafia’s will.
True the Vote, the nonprofit that combed through geotracking data and 4 million minutes of ballot drop box video feed, estimated that there were around 2,000 mules who visited 10 or more drop boxes across Arizona, Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia, and Pennsylvania for the 2020 election. However, when they lowered the criteria to include those that visited five or more ballot drop boxes, the number of alleged mules increased to 54,000.
Under the first criteria of individuals who visited 10 or more drop boxes, Arizona had 200 mules in the Phoenix area averaging 20 drop box visits and five ballots each, totaling 20,000 votes. Biden won the state by around 10,000 votes. When accounting for the 54,000 suspected mules, researchers estimated that the average of five drop box visits and three votes cast accounted for about 810,000 votes in the 2020 election. Of those types of votes, Arizona accounted for over 207,400.
Overall, the 2000 alleged mules that visited 10 or more drop boxes each averaged 38 drop box visits each, with an average of five ballots inserted — about 380,000 votes the documentary claimed were illegal. Michigan allegedly had 500 mules averaging 50 drop box visits and five ballots each, totaling 125,000 votes. Biden won the state with 154,000 votes. Wisconsin allegedly had 100 mules averaging 28 drop box visits and five ballots each, totaling 14,000 votes. Biden won by around 20,000 votes. Georgia allegedly had 250 mules averaging 24 drop box visits and five ballots each, totaling 30,000 votes. Biden won by around 12,000 votes — 18,000 less than the votes linked to the mules. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania allegedly had 1,100 mules averaging 50 drop box visits and five votes each, totaling 275,000 votes. Biden led Trump by around 80,000 votes — around 195,000 less than the votes linked to the mules.
When accounting for the alleged mules that visited five or more drop boxes each, Wisconsin had over 83,500 of those drop box votes; Georgia had over 92,600; Pennsylvania had over 209,500; and Michigan had over 226,600.
The bulk of the research for the documentary came from True the Vote, a Texas-based election integrity organization founded in 2009. The founder and president of the organization, Catherine Engelbrecht, and an election intelligence expert of 40 years, Gregg Phillips, presented a summary of their discoveries in the documentary.
Engelbrecht shared that, according to whistleblowers, mules receive an average of $10 per ballot and are generally required to take pictures of the ballots as they’re delivered into the drop boxes. Engelbrecht dismissed rebuttals to the claim that those identified as mules might be individuals with large families or those who happen to drive by ballot drop boxes frequently. She explained that the mules’ travel patterns concentrated around origin points at organizations where ballots were given to the mules, then drop boxes, then back to organizations that had ballots to dole out for mules. Phillips clarified further that the drop boxes were often in locations that required individuals to diverge from main roads.
The pair noted that they discovered multiple drop boxes’ video feed was shut off.
“You don’t need a lot of fraud. You just need a little in the right places at the right time,” explained Engelbrecht.
The day of the announcement of a State Grand Jury indictment of two individuals in December 2020, Engelbrecht and Phillips showed video evidence that Georgia mules donned blue surgical gloves when stuffing drop boxes with ballots during the runoff election. Phillips explained that the FBI used fingerprints to identify the Arizona ballot harvesters.
The two ballot harvesters were from the same area as the whistleblower featured in the documentary.
“This is an organized effort to subvert a free and fair election,” said Phillips.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | May 14, 2022 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Last month, the Maricopa County Community College District (MCCCD) gave a company $180,000 to do work already within the outlined responsibilities of its leadership: future planning and creation of a new mission statement.
In an email obtained by AZ Free News, Interim Chancellor Steven Gonzales insisted that the need to outsource the mission statement and strategic plan was due to the capacity constraints of the district’s Institutional Research/Effectiveness (IR/IE) experts normally responsible for those duties.
He further claimed that the increased community diversity necessitated a mission statement makeover and brand-new strategic plan. The allusion to diversity likely came, in part, from MCCCD’s new partnership with the technology company Intel to launch a semiconductor manufacturing bootcamp using American Rescue Plan funds — the entirety of the first class were women.
Gonzales projected that the new mission statement and strategic plan would be ready by New Year’s Eve, with implementation following in January of next year.
Although Gonzales said that the district was under capacity constraints, they formed a steering committee to offer resources to the vendor: MGT of America Consulting. The company has held many contracts throughout Arizona: they were hired by the city of Glendale, city of Scottsdale, city of Goodyear, Maricopa County, Coconino County, and Mesa Public Schools over the past few years.
The announcement came shortly after the Phoenix Business Journal selected Gonzales as one of the “Most Admired Leaders of 2022.” Gonzales assumed the interim chancellor role in January 2020.
75 percent of MCCCD’s income comes from property taxes. Only 23 percent comes from tuition. According to a railbird, MCCCD’s enrollment dropped to one-third of its previous enrollment.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | May 14, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
The largest newspaper in Arizona hired two new reporters with the help of a group funded by some of the country’s most powerful Big Tech corporations and liberal companies.
The new Arizona Republic reporters came from Report for America, a program launched by the Big Tech and liberal-funded GroundTruth Project to place their hand-selected journalists in newsrooms across the world. The not-for-profit receives millions from the likes of Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and the Ford Foundation for its mission to “restore journalism.”
The program offers a major financial incentive for news outlets to take on its reporters. Report for America pays 50 percent of their reporter’s salary the first year with a cap of $25,000 for reporters with less than eight years experience or $30,000 for reporters with eight or more years of experience, then 33 percent of the salary the second year and 20 percent the third year with no cap.
Outlets don’t even have to worry about paying for the entire remainder of those reporters’ salaries. The program pledged to help fundraise half or more of the remainder of each salary. High turnover wouldn’t be an issue, either — the program requires reporters to commit to working at least two years in the newsroom to which they are assigned.
News outlets must relinquish some of their freedom when it comes to hiring the program’s reporters, however. Outlets don’t get to choose from all of the program’s reporters. Report for America hand-selects three to five candidates from which the outlets may choose.
The owner of the Arizona Republic, the mass media holding company Gannett, has given thousands to the program: an undisclosed sum ranging from $5,000 to $50,000.
In addition to the Arizona Republic, Report for America journalists are working for Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting and Tucson Sentinel.
Report for America claimed that its reporters are committed to non-partisan, non-ideological local reporting. Over 200 news outlets across each of the 50 states house at least one of the over 300 Report for America journalists. Two-thirds of those reporters are women, and nearly half are “journalists of color” according to the program.
GroundTruth’s editorial partners include The Washington Post, Time, The Atlantic, The New York Times, The Guardian, USA Today, PBS, NPR, NewsWeek, TeenVogue, CNN, Cosmopolitan, ABC News, and USA Today.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Terri Jo Neff | May 13, 2022 | News
By Terri Jo Neff |
The State of Arizona has paid roughly $6 million in the last three years to private law firms to defend the Arizona Department of Child Safety against multiple allegations of staff malfeasance and misfeasance leading to the neglect, even death, of children placed into the state’s foster care system.
In the meantime, concerns brought forth by the Arizona Auditor General’s Office in 2019 about foster home recruitment, licensure, use, and retention have not been fully implemented by DCS, and there won’t be another status report to the Arizona Legislature until later this year, according to public records.
A nearly 60 page special report to Gov. Doug Ducey and lawmakers in September 2019 outlined six recommendations for improvements within DCS for Arizona’s foster care system. One key area of concern was foster parents who reported feeling excluded from decisions about the children in their care as well as difficulty accessing needed support and pressure to accept foster placements.
There were also several instances in which foster parents complained of being provided “incomplete or inadequate” information about the children placed in their care, something auditors confirmed when reviewing placement packets as part of the audit.
In May 2020, the Auditor General’s Office provided lawmakers with an initial follow-up, at which time it was revealed DCS was still in the process of implementing five of the six recommendations. Steps to implement the sixth recommendation had not been started, according to the audit report, despite the fact it addressed one of the main complaints – the lack of customer service to improve foster parent recruitment and ensure retention.
Instead, DCS was concentrating on developing and launching of Guardian, its much needed new agency-wide database. But when Guardian went live in February 2021, state employees closed off some features of the system to other state agencies, including the State Foster Care Review board and the Arizona Ombudsman’s Office.
In addition, there were numerous complaints from foster parents, adoptive parents, and foster children transitioning out of foster care about late payments for several weeks after Guardian went live.
A November 2021 “second follow-up” report by the Arizona Auditor General at the 24-month period did not get into those problems. Instead, the report to the chairs of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee remained focused on the six recommendations from 2019, of which DCS had fully implemented only 50 percent.
And there was still had no start date in sight for implementing an improved customer service model, according to that report.
Despite the lack of performance by DCS, there will not be another audit report to the Legislature on the foster home concerns until this fall, according to August General Lindsay Perry’s office. That will mark three years after the initial special report.
The six recommendations and findings as noted in the November 2021 report were:
1. DCS should develop and implement a customer service model to improve foster parent recruitment and retention, and engage in continuous quality improvement via feedback to ensure the model’s successful implementation.
But according to the Perry’s staff, DCS reported “it has yet to begin implementing a customer service model because of competing priorities within the Department, such as implementing its new case management system (Guardian). The Department has not identified a start date for implementing this recommendation.”
2. DCS should, as required by Arizona law, provide foster parents “with complete, updated written placement packet information upon placement of children with foster parents.”
The placement packets began being issued by DCS in September 2021 through an online portal for new and renewed placements. However, obtaining feedback on whether the packets were worthwhile was to be included as part of the improved customer service outlined in Recommendation 1. As a result, the Auditor General cannot make any assessments until the 3-year report on whether the placement packets have resolved concerns expressed by foster parents.
3. The Auditor General also recommended DCS undertake an effort to find out why a foster parent closes his or her license. The pre-Guardian database only allows one reason to be entered, even though foster parents fill out a form which allows for marking multiple reasons. According to DCS, this problem will be resolved at some point via Guardian.
4. Already implemented is the Auditor General’s recommendation that DCS develop and implement procedures to ensure contractors and staff adequately handle intake in English and Spanish, including answering or returning phone calls in a timely manner and meeting Department expectations for call quality.
5. Also implemented was the recommendation that DCS implement procedures to ensure contractors maintain websites with information about how to become a foster parent in Spanish.
6. DCS also improved its monitoring of foster home recruitment and support contracts to ensure core contract requirements are being met, such as providing access to respite care and other requirements DCS deems critical to the contracts’ success.
by Corinne Murdock | May 13, 2022 | News
By Corinne Murdock |
On Thursday, three GOP groups intervened in a lawsuit challenging Arizona’s new law requiring proof of citizenship in order to register to vote.
The Republican National Committee (RNC), National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), the Republican Party of Arizona (RPAZ), the Mohave County Republican Central Committee, and the Gila County Republican Committee intervened to challenge the plaintiffs: two activist organizations advocating for progressive policies, Mi Familia Vota and Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA).
In their motion to intervene, the GOP groups asserted that voter ID preserved election integrity.
“[T]he question for this Court is not whether Movants have an interest in maintaining an ‘unconstitutional’ law. The question is whether Movants have an interest in preventing a federal court from enjoining a valid law that increases voter confidence and promotes election integrity,” read their motion.
Both Mi Familia Vota and LUCHA received help from one of the top lawyers for the Democratic National Committee (DNC) and Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign: Russiagate hoax lawyer Marc Elias.
In a press release, GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel defended the new Arizona law as common-sense policy. She added that the law would hold Democrats accountable for their “underhanded election tactic” of rejecting voter ID.
“American elections should be decided by American citizens: full stop. When it comes to non-citizens voting, Democrats are trying to change the rules of the game because their radical ideas won’t win on an even playing field,” said McDaniel.
Democrats argued that requiring proof of citizenship in order to vote was unconstitutional and against federal law.
However, legal experts like former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Andrew Gould clarified that the Constitution never empowered non-citizens with the right to vote. Gould told Arizona Daily Independent that the Constitution actually excludes non-citizens.
“Of course, non-citizens have never had a right to vote under the Constitution, and so it is absurd to argue that HB2492 takes away a legal, constitutional right to vote from anyone,” said Gould. “Requiring proof of citizenship to vote is a neutral, reasonable, non-discriminatory restriction that operates to exclude one group: non-citizens.”
If the new law withstands legal challenges, it wouldn’t go into effect until 2023.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
by Corinne Murdock | May 11, 2022 | Education, News
By Corinne Murdock |
Mesa Public Schools (MPS) ignored additional requests from our reporters to obtain data on how $32.3 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds were spent. In March, MPS told AZ Free News that no records existed detailing how exactly those funds were spent.
Over a month ago, AZ Free News inquired about records for the chart of accounts related to Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) funding. There were three separate COVID-19 federal relief grants administered: ESSER I, coded under 326; ESSER II, coded under 336; and ESSER III, coded under 346.
We requested those records because the public ESSER report given by MPS in December didn’t offer an in-depth explanation. MPS attributed those tens of millions spent to a variety of ambiguous explanations: “other,” “etc,” “indirect costs,” and “COVID relief positions.”
When we asked for further information about the $32.3 million, MPS told us they couldn’t offer further explanation of those expenditures because they weren’t required by law to create records.
Of the over $4 billion Arizona received in ESSER funding, MPS received the second-largest allotment: around $229.2 million. Tucson Unified School District (TUSD) received the most in the state.
Last October, MPS reported that they had nearly $40 million remaining in their maintenance and operation funds.
Corinne Murdock is a reporter for AZ Free News. Follow her latest on Twitter, or email tips to corinne@azfreenews.com.
