An Arizona Republic reporter was escorted from the Arizona election audit site on Friday morning after posting a photo showing a former Republican legislator at a ballot-counting table.
The photo showed a ballot, with no markings discernible, on a vertical stand in front of former state Rep. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale.
The reporter, Ryan Randazzo, was told his press privileges were revoked. He left the building as requested.
Randazzo was observing the audit, along with two other Arizona journalists, as part of an agreement with audit organizers to monitor the proceedings.
Randazzo had spotted Kern tallying votes at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum as part of the unprecedented review ordered by the Arizona Senate.
Citing concerns raised by a court that images of ballots be protected, organizers argued the photo violated rules on press coverage because a ballot was visible in the photo, although nothing was legible.
“He tweeted out a tweet that included a picture of a ballot. We are being extremely cautious based on the judge’s decision. He doesn’t want ballot images made public,” said Ken Bennett, a former secretary of state who has been serving as the Senate’s liaison for the process.
Arizona journalists have been monitoring the election audit in person since Tuesday afternoon. The participating reporters and photographers pledged not to show images that detail any identifiable ballot information.
The audit livestream at the public website azaudit.org shows non-identifiable ballots, too, as well as the people involved in the counting and observing process.
Bennett would not say whether it was possible to read anything on the ballot in Randazzo’s photo, arguing that beside the point and that he did not want any images of ballots to be published or broadcast.
“I don’t know if it was identifiable or not,” he said.
Journalists are accustomed to requests not to show close-ups of the ballots.
Maricopa County, which oversees counting of ballots in elections, allows observation of the vote count through a window into the tabulation area, and just asks that media “doesn’t get (photo) close ups because state law allows for the secrecy of ballots,” said Megan Gilbertson, spokesperson for the county elections department. The county does not have rules limiting photos of poll workers during the count.
Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott, also contended that journalists should not closely photograph the faces of workers involved in the process, raising concerns that they could be identified.
Asked how the situation is different from that of an election, when election officials and staff are under public scrutiny, Fann said: “It’s OK to be subject to scrutiny but it’s not OK to zoom in on their faces and plaster it all over social media.”
But Bennett said Randazzo’s access was not revoked because Kern was in the photo.
“That had nothing to do with it,” he said.
Arizona journalists made no agreement to avoid photographing participants in the audit process.
“The Arizona Republic never agreed to obscure faces,” Greg Burton, Republic executive editor, said. “The Senate’s own livestream on the floor shows faces of everybody involved. We agreed not to show ballot details, which we have adhered to, but clearly, you can’t take a picture in a room full of ballots without showing ballots at a distance. Anyone looking at the live feed gets the same view.”
Kern’s participation raised eyebrows in part because he is on the ballot as a candidate. He ran for re-election to the Arizona House of Representatives in District 20 and placed last in the three-way race, losing his seat.
The Senate’s recount does not include any legislative races, only races Democrats have won — the race for president and U.S. Senate.
But Kern was also nominated by the Republican Party as a presidential elector and appeared on the ballot alongside then President Donald Trump’s name, along with the party’s 10 other electors.
Kern has since insisted Trump’s defeat was fraudulent and was scheduled to speak to a rally outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, the day a mob stormed the building. He was photographed in the crowd but has denied any wrongdoing.
The CEO of Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based firm the Arizona Senate has hired to oversee the process, told reporters last week that workers were screened to ensure “there was nothing on their social media or other details that showed strong opinions one way or another.”
Arizona Republic city editor Carrie Watters contributed reporting to this story.
Source Article from https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2021/04/30/ryan-randazzo-escorted-from-arizona-audit-site-after-tweet-former-state-rep-anthony-kern/4892470001/
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