Did Maricopa County Officials Just Accidentally Admit Voting Machines Can Be Compromised?
Officials in Maricopa County announced they will replace the voting machines that were subpoenaed during the forensic audit of the 2020 election, alleging concerns about security and integrity.  The voters of Maricopa County can rest assured, the County will never use equipment that could pose a risk to free and fair elections. The County recognizes Secretary Hobbs authority under A.R.S.  16-442 to certify equipment for use in Arizonas elections. As a result, the County will not use the subpoenaed equipment in any future elections, the county said in a statement on Monday. County officials, who have always opposed the audit, have long alleged, without any evidence, that subpoenaed machines could be compromised by the auditors and, in fact, acquired new machines for local elections held this year. The county also reportedly refused to provide subpoenaed routers  In May, it was reported that significant discrepancies had been uncovered during the audit, though a full report on the findings isnt expected until late July or August. Other states have sent delegations to Maricopa County as they consider conducting their own forensic audits. An audit is currently underway in Fulton County, Georgia, and it is expected that a forensic audit could be coming to Pennsylvania. Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania are all battleground states where multiple allegations of election irregularities and fraud were made. Related: New Revelations Prove Why The Maricopa County Election Audit Was Needed  But claims that machines can be hacked were deemed false by fact-checkers in the wake of the Trump campaigns allegations. They are basically saying, Trust the liberal county officials not to hack the machines, but dont trust the Republican-hired auditors not to hack them.  Of course, weve known for a while that voting machines could be hacked. In 2019, Democrats warned about voting machines switching votes. Joe Biden even said he was concerned about manipulated voting machines before the election, and perhaps most revealing of all, a computer scientist literally demonstrated how easy it is to hack voting machines. It all comes down to trusting those with custody of the machines not to hack them. They essentially just proved why the audit was absolutely necessary. If voting machines were truly unhackable, as fact-checkers have claimed, Maricopa County officials wouldnt have to grandstand with baseless claims that the auditors might have compromised the machines. Quite frankly, I trust the auditors more than I trust Maricopa County officialswho have always acted like theyve had something to hide.