Maricopa County Republican chair resigns after criticism for skipping Dominion election testing

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Photo Credit: Associated Press

The Maricopa County Republican chair Rae Lynne Chornenky resigned from her post on Tuesday, according to ABC15 Arizona, after it became public that she was a no-show at a voting machine test in October. Calls for her to step down started after Maricopa County Democratic Party chair Stephen Slugocki announced in a Twitter post that she had not attended the test of election equipment. 

In the tweet, Slugocki said, “Remember on October 6th when I conducted the logic and accuracy test on the County Recorder ballot counters to represent the @MaricopaDems and the County GOP/County Libertarian didn’t bother to show up? And I made a bid deal about it to remember if they complained later?”

Rep. Kelly Townsend also shared on Twitter that Chornenky failed to attend the county’s logic and accuracy test session of election equipment.

Known as LA testing, the public event demonstrates the process of how the voting machines work. It involves verifying that the county’s election equipment reads and counts ballots properly. Members of the Secretary of State’s office, as well as representatives of both political parties, are invited to attend.  Once the test is complete, witnesses sign a certificate confirming the test was successful. Only Maricopa County’s Democratic Chairman signed the certificate. No members of the Republican or Libertarian parties attended the test this year. According to the Arizona Daily Independent, it is unclear if Chornenky received notice of the public testing.

In one tweet, Townsend stated, “I just found out that Maricopa County GOP Chairman Rae Chornenky failed to show up to certify the Dominion Machines. For this reason, I call for her resignation, along with the 1st Vice Chair.”

In response to Townsend’s  tweet, Chornenky responded, “I’ll tell you what, I’ll resign when you sprout even an ounce of integrity and obtain the intelligence to check your facts before spreading filth about a person whom you don’t know on a topic about which you have not the slightest clue.”

President Donald Trump has claimed that widespread voter fraud occurred during the election, a claim that has yet to be substantiated by any court or elections official. He also claims that Dominion Voter Systems, a voting software company used in many states, deleted and switched votes to Joe Biden intended for himself.

On Thursday, the federal agency that oversees elections Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) stated, “There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes, or was in any way compromised.”

Dominion Voting Systems posted an article on Friday, defending their company. They asserted that the vote deletion or switching is completely false. They also stated that they are a nonpartisan company and are not owned by the Pelosi family, the Feinstein family, or the Clinton Global Initiative. The article clears up any confusion on whether a last-minute software update occurred, which Dominion denies. Most importantly, the company states that there were no software glitches and the results are 100% auditable.

“No credible reports or evidence of any software issues exist.  Dominion equipment is used by county and state officials to tabulate ballots.  Human errors related to reporting tabulated results have arisen in a few counties, including some using Dominion equipment, but appropriate procedural actions were taken by the county to address these errors were made prior to the canvass process.”