A surveillance video shows people rummaging through dumpsters outside of a tabulation and election center as Arizona’s Maricopa County insists that its 2020 election materials are safe and in storage.
The fourth-most populous county in the United States, which has been a hot zone for audits and recounts over concerns about voter fraud, is preparing 2020 election materials for an independent forensic audit to be conducted by the Arizona State Senate’s Republicans, who first demanded materials in subpoenas filed in December.
With plans for how that audit will proceed still in flux, and conspiracy theories spreading in right-wing circles about illegally shredded ballots being found in the dumpsters, the Maricopa County Elections Department released a video on March 9 of the dumpster divers in action.
The footage taken Friday afternoon shows two women at the main entrance of the building. One of the women took photos and is seen talking to someone inside. She is handed a piece of paper, which elections officials said was a voter registration form.
DUMPSTER DIVE PROMPTS MARICOPA COUNTY TO TRASH CLAIMS OF ILLEGALLY SHREDDED BALLOTS
Video from Saturday shows one of the women and two men getting out of an SUV near the dumpsters behind the building.
One of the men dug through the dumpster and pulled out a yellow bag filled with shredded materials that he later claimed were ballots.
The county sent a statement to the Washington Examiner on Monday denying that the materials were related to the 2020 election, stressing that the ballots are kept in warehouse storage.
Additionally, the group of three at the dumpster Saturday took a wooden board from the garbage and attempted to break inside the warehouse, but officials said they were unsuccessful.
“The reality is the November General Election ballots are sealed and stored in the vault, not the warehouse,” county spokeswoman Megan Gilbertson said. “The vault is under the watch of a 24-7 camera. None of the ballots or other General election materials from the vault were in the garbage, and as a matter of business, the county can and does throw out trash.”
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer told a local FOX affiliate that the “2.1 million legally voted ballots from the November General Election are safe and accounted for in the Elections Department vault.”
He added he was unsure what materials the group found in the yellow bag, but added, “I’ve confirmed that we shred a variety of non-classified documents. In addition, we also destroy deceased voter ballots since they could never be legally tabulated.”
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The Washington Examiner contacted Richer but did not immediately receive a response.
