A new whistleblower claim involving Runbeck Election Services has thrust questions about ballot handling and chain-of-custody back into the spotlight for Arizona voters.
According to media reporting, a whistleblower alleges that roughly 300,000 ballots were printed and added into the tally for the Arizona 2022 general election. These ballots didn’t come in from ballot drop boxes or polling locations, but instead were brought in by employees, without documented chain of custody.
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These claims echo arguments raised in election-contest litigation following the 2022 general election, which included testimony alleging lapses in chain-of-custody documentation for tens of thousands of ballots. One thing is certain: ballots that are not part of a verifiable chain of custody undermine voter confidence and raise fundamental questions about how elections are conducted and overseen.
Senator Mark Finchem has been at the forefront of election-security advocacy in Arizona for years — from pushing for improved ballot security features like tracking markers and watermarks to highlighting the need for transparent, auditable processes in every election.For years, Senator Finchem has consistently raised concerns about how ballots are printed, distributed, and counted, and he made election integrity a core theme of his campaign for Arizona Secretary of State.
Finchem underscored the significance of these whistleblower allegations in a recent statement:
“We knew something was very wrong when we were told the ballots were scanned off-site before they were submitted for tabulation by election officials. In the fullness of time, now we know why. They had to know the number needed to achieve the result they wanted.”
For years, Finchem has warned that outsourcing key election functions to private vendors without strict public oversight creates vulnerabilities. He has championed reforms to ensure ballots carry unique identifiers, and to introduce stricter chain-of-custody requirements — so that every ballot, whether absentee, drop-box, or election-day, could be tracked from the moment it’s produced through its final tally.