Representative Abe Hamadeh (R-AZ) condemned Runbeck Election Services in a recent social media post following a report that the company mailed over 3,000 ballots in Maricopa County ahead of schedule.
The Context
The Maricopa County Recorder's office said on Sunday that Runbeck mailed 3,126 ballots out to voters on October 1st, six days before the intended release date of October 7th. However, the Recorder's office noted that the ballots were sent to the correct voters and will remain unopened and securely stored until the scheduled processing date.
The early mail-out was considered a mistake.
However, the FBI is investigating Runbeck Election Services for allegedly mixing blank printed ballots with returned voted mail ballots being prepped for tabulation from several western states, including Arizona, which Rep. Hamadeh requested last June in a letter to former Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Hamadeh's Post
As a result of the recent early mail-out, Rep. Hamadeh wrote on X, "Maricopa says Runbeck 'mistakenly' mailed 3,126 ballots six days early. This isn't their first 'mistake.' One error is incompetence. A pattern is a system. Runbeck touches tens of millions of ballots, and Maricopa inexplicably keeps handing them the keys."
Other Maricopa Anomalies
In August, the Arizona congressman commented on the declassification of files showing that a man from Fountain Hills hacked the Maricopa County voter database during the 2020 election.
The hacker scraped over 633,000 voter files, 930 of which contained sensitive information on domestic violence victims, law enforcement officers, and judges. However, the scrape did not include ballots, and no evidence suggested votes were changed.
Moreover, the Biden Administration refused to charge the suspect, which Hamadeh took as proof that the 2020 Election was not secure.
"We are long past the point where anyone still parroting 'the most secure election in American history' about 2020 should be taken seriously," Hamadeh wrote. "That failure to prosecute didn't just bury a crime. It left the same vulnerabilities wide open for years afterward. Maricopa was breached. He confessed. The system protected the perpetrator over the voters. ENOUGH. Prosecute the crimes. Secure the systems. Give the people the free and fair elections they deserve."
