State Senator Jones details his trip to Maricopa County

ELLIJAY, Ga Burt Jones (R Jack­son) just returned from a trip to Mari­co­pa Coun­ty, Ari­zona to inspect its bal­lot audit process.

Offi­cials in Mari­co­pa Coun­ty invit­ed Jones and State Sen­a­tor Bran­don Beach (R Alpharet­ta) to vis­it. They brought along with des­ig­nat­ed foren­sic audi­tors in the Ful­ton Coun­ty law­suit, which seeks to inspect 147,000 bal­lots. Mari­co­pa Coun­ty is in the mid­dle of a 2 mil­lion bal­lot audit.

Jones called mem­bers of the Penn­syl­va­nia del­e­ga­tion who vis­it­ed Ari­zona pre­vi­ous­ly and they encour­aged him to go and see the oper­a­tion in per­son. Jones affirmed that the Ari­zona audi­tors were very pro­fes­sion­al and tight-lipped about any poten­tial find­ings. The Mari­co­pa Coun­ty audit results will be pre­sent­ed at the end of the process.

The state sen­a­tor, whom many expect to run for either gov­er­nor or lt. gov­er­nor, added that some of Ari­zonas issues were eeri­ly sim­i­lar to what we say in Ful­ton.

The foren­sic audi­tors in atten­dance had an oppor­tu­ni­ty to ask ques­tions of their Ari­zona peers and iden­ti­fy the best path for­ward if the law­suit con­tin­ues past June 21. In Geor­gia, Hen­ry Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court Judge Bri­an Amero delayed the case after receiv­ing a motion to dis­miss.

An audit sanc­tioned by the Gen­er­al Assem­bly isnt like­ly to man­i­fest with many in the leg­is­la­ture pre­fer­ring for the courts to sort out the mat­ter.

Geor­gias Sec­re­tary of States Office con­duct­ed three sep­a­rate recounts that did­nt uncov­er any sig­nif­i­cant instances of fraud.

Jones admit­ted that even after the pas­sage of SB 202 many Geor­gia Repub­li­cans are hes­i­tant to return to the vot­ing booth. He added its time to change the per­cep­tion. He intro­duced two bills last ses­sion deal­ing with the Domin­ion Vot­ing Machine sys­tem, but at this time, its unclear if Geor­gia will change sys­tems before the 2022 elec­tion cycle. The state agreed to a $140 mil­lion con­tract over 10 years for the machines.

Our peo­ple arent hap­py, Jones said of the Repub­li­can base and the state should­nt dou­ble down on a bad invest­ment. Addi­tion­al­ly, soon coun­ties will start pay­ing for the main­te­nance of the Domin­ion machines. The state pre­vi­ous­ly paid for upkeep, and it could cost coun­ties an esti­mat­ed $50,000.

Jones was stripped of his lead­er­ship posi­tions in the Sen­ate for his strong stance on inves­ti­gat­ing the 2020 elec­tion by Lt. Gov­er­nor Geoff Dun­can.

Dun­can has since decid­ed to not seek reelec­tion in 2022 while Jones received the new War­rior Awards from the State Repub­li­can Con­ven­tion in Jekyll Island last week.