Top Arizona Election Official Alleges Voting Machines Have ‘Been Compromised’

A Democrat who is also Arizona’s top elections official added one more layer to the controversial audit of Maricopa County’s voting machines Thursday by claiming the machines can never be used again.

Arizona’s Republican-majority state Senate ordered the audit, which is being performed by Cyber Ninjas, a firm hired by the Senate.

Maricopa County officials battled against the audit, but in the end were forced to give way after a subpoena ordering the machines to be provided was upheld in court.

Roughly 2 million ballots and 385 tabulators are still being reviewed, according to The Epoch Times.

On Thursday, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs wrote to the county to explain having the GOP-appointed firm inspect the machines has ruined them in terms of any further use.

“I have grave concerns regarding the security and integrity of these machines, given that the chain of custody, a critical security tenet, has been compromised and election officials do not know what was done to the machines while under Cyber Ninjas’ control,” Hobbs said in the letter.

“Indeed, such loss of custody constitutes a cyber incident to critical infrastructure — an event that could jeopardize the confidentiality, integrity, or availability of digital information or information systems.”

She wrote officials with the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency “advised that once election officials lose custody and control over voting systems and components, those devices should not be reused in future elections.”