Page:Bowyer v. Ducey (CV-20-02321-PXH-DJH) (2020) Order.pdf/25

 referees in settling unresolved disputes between adjudicators (Id. at ¶ 49); to “irregularities” with the voting machines on Election Day and before (Id. at ¶¶ 50–52); and to the certification of the Dominion voting system on November 18, 2020 (Id. at ¶ 53). These objections to the manner in which Arizona officials administered the election cannot serve to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in Arizona because they fail to present evidence that supports the underlying fraud claim. At most, these are the type of “garden variety election irregularities” federal courts are “not equipped nor empowered to supervise….” Griffin v. Burns, 570 F.2d 1065, 1076, 1077 (1st Cir. 1978) (“If every election irregularity or contested vote involved a federal violation, the court would be thrust into the details of virtually every election, tinkering with the state’s election machinery, reviewing petitioners, registration cards, vote tallies, and certificates of election for all manner of error and insufficiency under state and federal law.”).

Plaintiffs next argue that they have expert witnesses who can attest to widespread voter fraud in Arizona. As an initial matter, none of Plaintiffs’ witnesses identify Defendants as committing the alleged fraud, or state what their participation in the alleged fraudulent scheme was. Instead, they allege that, absentee ballots “could have been filled out by anyone and then submitted in the name of another voter,” “could be filled in by third parties to shift the election to Joe Biden,” or that ballots were destroyed or replaced “with blank ballots filled out by election workers, Dominion or other third parties.” (Doc. 1 ¶¶ 54–58) (emphasis added). These innuendoes fail to meet Rule 9(b) standards. But perhaps more concerning to the Court is that the “expert reports” reach implausible conclusions, often because they are derived from wholly unreliable sources.

Plaintiffs’ expert Mr. William Briggs (“Briggs”), for example, concludes that “troublesome” errors by Arizona election officials “involving unreturned mail-in ballots[] are indicative of voter fraud” and that the election should consequently be overturned. (Doc. 1 at ¶ 54). Briggs relies on data provided by an unknown person named “Matt Braynard,” a person who may or may not have tweeted a “Residency Analysis of ABS/EV Voters” on his Twitter account on November 20, 2020 (Doc. 1-2 at 14, Ex. 2); (Id. at 52,