



The voter controversy in Arizona is intensifying.

During a committee hearing at the state Capitol in Phoenix this week, Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan admitted that wrongdoing occurred in the Arizona primary for the presidential election on March 22, U.S. Uncut reports. Asked to explain the multiple incidents of “anecdotal evidence” of voter suppression, Reagan stated that her office has been “working extensively” on the problem and said that even one of her own employees had experienced a problem.

The acknowledgment comes a week after angry Arizona residents demanded a revote for the primary, accusing the state of voter suppression and describing several forms of disenfranchisement, including some voters’ party affiliations having been changed unbeknownst to them.

Reagan’s testimony did not pacify voters. As she nervously addressed a distraught audience about election fraud, she said that her office “knows it happened” — earning her a shower of boos and other upset exclamations. She added that her team cross-checked “voter registration forms to see and try to pinpoint which are the files that we believe were possibly affected” but that “a complete report” was nowhere near completion. Perhaps even worse, Reagan noted that her office has heard reports of the same type of fraud in previous elections, but never “to this level.”

Although an explanation for the registration changes remains a mystery, the hacker group Anonymous has suggested that Arizona’s online database was hacked. The group cited multiple anecdotes and discussions with “veteran hackers,” one of whom scanned the state’s site and “discovered a massive vulnerability in less than a minute” that “is nearly impossible to defend against a skilled and determined attacker.”

All of this information is unsettling, as U.S. Uncut writes:

Because Arizona is a closed primary state, those who aren’t previously registered as Democrat, Republican, or Green are prohibited from voting in primary elections. In its investigation of voter suppression claims in Arizona, Anonymous made the case that because Arizona stores voter registration information in easily-hackable SQL databases, it would be easy for any hacker to gain access to databases and change voter registration from one of the approved parties to independent. This would render thousands of votes impotent in the primary and drastically change the outcome.

Truthdig also has heard reports that similar party affiliation changes are occurring in New York. If this has happened to you in any state, please let us know in our Facebook comments section or send us a direct message.

—Posted by Emma Niles