Rep. Mark Finchem: Ballot Watermarks and Increased Mail-in Voting Standards are Needed to Protect Election Security
Shane Trejo
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Arizona state Representative Mark Finchem (R-Oro Valley) is running for secretary of state, and he recently shared his thoughts on how he could reform the election process in that position and in a state suffering a crisis of confidence in elections.
“There are a couple things we have on the radar. One of those is a ballot fraud security countermeasures process that would put a UV-light activated watermark onto ballots. In doing that, we are able to serialize the sheets of paper so that we know what is the defined universe of ballots that are in the system, of ballots that have been issued that are available,” Finchem told Big League Politics Live.
“If we are able to put a watermark and a serialization onto the paper, that means we can account for the number of ballots. Now, of course, that would not be tied to the voters so we would still have an anonymous voting system,” he added.
Finchem also wants to make sure that voters can verify if their ballots have been counted and personally make sure their ballots have not been intercepted by a third party. He does not call for an end to mail-in voting entirely but believes that additional security measures can be implemented to secure the process.
“There are a lot of people calling to end the mail ballot system. That’s been run in Arizona here for 20 years. I think that’s probably here to stay, but I do have a problem with electronic equipment counting ballots that appears to be calculating as opposed to tabulating,” Finchem said.
He said that much of his policy still hinges upon the results of the ongoing Maricopa County audit of ballots and counting machines. Finchem says he has received death threats and endured other harassment since announcing his run for secretary of state.
“I’m under attack daily and in some of the most vile ways. People have put out fake ads on Craig’s List that I’ve got a free canoe, come pick it up. I got over 150 texts last night,” Finchem said of the harassment he has received from deranged liberals.
“And then, of course, the fake news media. We’ve got organizations like the Arizona Republic, which used to be a great newspaper. It’s now nothing more than a propaganda rag. You’ve got op/ed guys, like the Arizona Daily Star. They’re writing stories as though they’re news stories when they’re little more than supposition and an opinion piece,” he continued.
“So they’re not grounded in fact. They take a little piece of truth and then expand on what their belief is. So, if anyone is creating fake news and conspiracy theories, it’s the Left, but then again, that’s what Saul Alinsky taught them all to do. If you don’t like the message, marginalize the messenger, and I don’t think that’s going to work here,” Finchem added.
The entire episode of BLP Live with Finchem can be seen here:
For more information on supporting Finchem’s candidacy for secretary of state, visit https://votefinchem.com/.
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