A temporary worker has been arrested in Arizona after it was discovered that he stole a key fob at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC).
Walter Ringfield Jr., was charged after he allegedly stole a security fob and keys from MCTEC.
The man has also reportedly been charged with stealing $1,000 cash from a grocery store.
Prosecution reportedly suspended the case after the suspect entered a diversion program, and Ringfield Jr. later passed a background check to work for the elections.
Election workers are now in the process of reprogramming the tabulators and reconducting Logic and Accuracy Testing.
“The security fobs are used in conjunction with special secure tablets during the election,” Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office detectives said in court documents. “A director at the facility stated that the estimated cost of the reprogramming would be greater than $19,000 dollars, and the secure operation of the facility is greatly impeded until the reprogramming is complete.”
In May 2023, a video apparently revealed that Maricopa County election machines were tampered with and reprogrammed leading up to the 2022 election.
Election officials took part in undisclosed “Logic and Accuracy” testing on October 14th, after the mandatory October 11th test, but the required public notice of the testing did not occur.
The findings support Maricopa County Elections Director Scott Jarrett’s statement, “Beginning on October 14th and occurring through October 18th, Maricopa County installed the new memory cards that had the certified Election Program.
Due to the reformatting, logs from the memory cards would have a start date of either October 14, 17, or 18.”
Kari Lake War Room also tweeted at the time a description of the illegal activity: “Maricopa submitted a declaration by Elections Director Jarrett revealing that AFTER the October 11th certification for logic & accuracy, they realized that they didn’t configure the vote center tabulators to not accept provisional or early ballots,” the tweet read
