An election officer in Arizona was booted out over election fraud.
Elections director for Pinal County, Arizona, David Friske has been fired on Tuesday after officials noticed incompetence and anomalies on how he managed the primary elections.
According to the county website, Virginia Ross, who has been Pinal County Recorder since 2013 was appointed to replace Friske after she resigned from her previous position.
However, despite the approval to fire Friske from Pinal County voters, they admitted that they’re not so at ease with who the county chose to replace Friske.
“Voters in Pinal County say now they feel like they are watching the chairs being moved around the deck of the Titanic,” the report said.
In Friske’s bio on Pinal County pages, he had served as Project Manager of the Elections Division since 2018, and had worked for Kitsap since 2015.
On March 8, 2022, Friske was reportedly appointed to Pinal County Director of Elections and was to “lead a team of five, focused on planning elections in Pinal County, ensuring they are secure, transparent, accessible, free, and fair elections that inspire public confidence in the election system.”
However, almost immediately after his appointment, Friske encountered his problems prior to election day “Pinal County became the focus of lawsuits after the Elections Department sent about 63,000 voters in seven municipalities an incorrect early ballot in the mail.”
Friske’s dismissal came after the Pinal County was slammed amid the controversy involving republican voters being turned away because they ran out of ballots.
The election officer allegedly argued at that time that they had relied on the formula from Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’ office to determine how many ballots were needed at each voting site.
The county also argued that the shortages were due to “unprecedented demand.”
“Due to unprecedented demand for in-person ballots, Pinal County has experienced a ballot shortage in certain, limited precincts. Pinal County is continuing to print additional ballots and distributing them to each affected precinct polling place.” The Pinal County Government announced on Twitter early August.
After the announcement, Kari Lake grilled and slammed the Pinal County’s decision on Twitter.
“If your right to vote was literally taken away, is this person’s resignation enough to remedy that? How much bigger would our win be if all these people were allowed to vote?” Lake questioned.
As a result of the contrioversy, chairman of the Board of Supervisors for Pinal County, Jeffrey McClure released an official statement on behalf of the Board.
“As a Board we are deeply embarrassed and frustrated by mistakes that of been made in this primary election, and as such we are taking immediate steps to ensure the November election runs smoothly, as elections in Pinal County have historically done prior to this primary.” McClure said.
“It is vital that we restore trust for Pinal County voters, and I can assure the community that there’s no better leader to take control of our Elections Department than Virginia Ross. As a fellow elected official, I am grateful to Virginia for sacrificing her elected role to answer the needs of Pinal County.” He added.
