Last Monday the Arizona Senate reconvened. During a Senate session, the conversation shifted to overseas votes. These votes are covered by the Uniform Overseas Civilian Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA) and are men and women serving overseas that traditionally vote heavily for Republicans.
The act officially covers:
- members of the United States Uniformed Services and merchant marine;
- their family members; and
- United States citizens residing outside the United States.
During the hearing, Paul Harris, a Maricopa resident, and veteran spoke to the committee regarding his position as a manager during the audit of the Maricopa County audit of the 2020 election ballots. He was charged with overseeing the UOCAVA votes. His take was very interesting.
Paul Harris: The UOCAVA is the Uniform Overseas Civilian Absentee Voting Act ballot. That ballot is sent out to men and women who work overseas and the people who work overseas to get a chance to work in the election. This is what a ballot looks like that goes out, an 11 1/2 X 19 ballot. When I opened up a box of ballots this is what a ballot looks like that’s a UOCAVA ballot. You know what that is? It’s an 8 1/2 X 11 sheet of copy paper.
Paul Harris continued: “Did you all know that our ballots come back like this from our overseas people? Did any of you know this? It is such a sham that I had people everyday at my table taking pictures of these ballots that were scanned down. It took my team three complete days to count all of the UOCAVA ballots. You know why? Because in 2016 the numbers were apparently 1,600 UOCAVA ballots that came back in the most significant election in our lifetime. In 2020 the numbers were close to 9,600 ballots that came back. And I will tell you as an eye-witness, 95%… all went towards one candidate. And in a state where a candidate won by 10,000 votes that is 8,000 new votes during an election where people were brought home because there was a pandemic… No chain of custody. There’s nothing to identify where this piece of paper came from.
There are similar stories coming from the states of Michigan and Georgia.