8.10

Risk Assessment

Principle 8 - Assess Fraud, Improper Payment, and Information Security Risk

Attribute 8.10 - Management considers fraud risk factors. Fraud risk factors do not necessarily indicate that fraud exists but are often present when fraud occurs. Fraud risk factors may include the following:

• Incentive/pressure - Management, other personnel, or external parties have an incentive or are under pressure, which provides a motive to commit fraud.
• Opportunity - Circumstances exist, such as the absence of controls, ineffective controls, or the ability of management to override controls, that provide an opportunity to commit fraud.
• Attitude/rationalization - Individuals involved can rationalize committing fraud. Some individuals possess an attitude, character, or ethical values that allow them to commit dishonest acts knowingly and intentionally.

>>>Navigational Buttons<<<

• Index of Attributes
• Previous Attribute - 8.09
• Next Attribute - 8.11

Jamie's Story

No examples are available.

Election Anomalies

The Green Book's Principle 8 addresses Assess Fraud, Improper Payment, and Information Security Risk. Obviously, improper payments is not a concern during the Assessment of Election Anomalies. However, improper payments by MC county may exist, but would require a separate assessment.

The Green Book's emphasis on fraud and information security as separate risk assessment activity is intentional. MC may be able to defer to the Arizona Secretary of State's Election Procedure Manual as general steps taken to ensure the integrity of election results. Fraud occurs when loopholes are identified and exploited by the fraudsters. The implementers of election services (i.e., Arizona Counties) are better positioned to detect fraud and assess the risk of fraud because they are handling the data, not the state. Hence, governance gaps may be identified from patterns of poor assessment and response to risk with respect to election fraud and information security.

Arizona Senate Allegations

All three conditions of this attribute applied during the 2020 General Election.

• Incentive/pressure - Management, other personnel, or external parties have an incentive or are under pressure, which provides a motive to commit fraud.
  • This was a General Election and Maricopa County was significant for the purposes of the Electoral College, which elects the President of the United States of America. Maricopa County the most densely populated County in Arizona. The outcome of Maricopa County can sway all of the Electoral Votes, which are cast in accordance with the winner. Therefore, there is more of an incentive to conduct fraud in Maricopa County than it is to conduct fraud in a rural county. There is more benefit for conducting fraud in Maricopa than there is for conduction fraud in Yavapai County.
• Opportunity - Circumstances exist, such as the absence of controls, ineffective controls, or the ability of management to override controls, that provide an opportunity to commit fraud.
  • If malicious intent was present, there were months of opportunity for IT personnel to corrupt the database by independent audits were initiated.
• Attitude/rationalization - Individuals involved can rationalize committing fraud. Some individuals possess an attitude, character, or ethical values that allow them to commit dishonest acts knowingly and intentionally.
  • MC elected officials and MC leadership were not transparent and intentionally stalled independent assessments, which could have been interpreted as performing the culturally appropriate actions, even if considered unethical by the public.

Maricopa Dropbox Collection (2020)

Governance issues identified from Arizona Attorney General's Office 2020 General Election Investigation of Arizona Senate allegations of Maricopa County Election Department - Drop Box Collections issues. This attribute addresses external factors. See same factors addressed in Maricopa County Signature Verification (2020) (below), which apply to this anomaly.

Fraud Potential (2020, 2022, 2024, 2025)

Additional details regarding this aspect of my story are available in a subsection titled Contract with the Motor Vehicle Department (MVD).

This Green Book Attribute (8.10) is noteworthy because of MC legal position that there are no records.

Maricopa County Signature Verification (2020)

Governance issues identified from Arizona Attorney General's Office 2020 General Election Investigation of Arizona Senate allegations of Maricopa County - Signature Verification Process issues.

All three conditions of this attribute applied during the 2020 General Election.

• Incentive/pressure - Management, other personnel, or external parties have an incentive or are under pressure, which provides a motive to commit fraud.
  • This was a General Election and Maricopa County was significant for the purposes of the Electoral College, which elects the President of the United States of America. Maricopa County the most densely populated County in Arizona. The outcome of Maricopa County can sway all of the Electoral Votes, which are cast in accordance with the winner. Therefore, there is more of an incentive to conduct fraud in Maricopa County than it is to conduct fraud in a rural county. There is more benefit for conducting fraud in Maricopa than there is for conduction fraud in Yavapai County.
• Opportunity - Circumstances exist, such as the absence of controls, ineffective controls, or the ability of management to override controls, that provide an opportunity to commit fraud.
  • There was an unusual opportunity to implement management overrides during the 2020 General Election. The public health mandates implemented to address the Covid-19 pandemic provided MC Election management the opportunity to implement management overrides without questions. Nothing was normal during Covid-19.
• Attitude/rationalization - Individuals involved can rationalize committing fraud. Some individuals possess an attitude, character, or ethical values that allow them to commit dishonest acts knowingly and intentionally.
  • The Covid-19 pandemic motivated citizens to use early ballot voting as a safe alternative to in-person voting at a voting center.

In summary, the public relied more on early ballot voting as a means to safely cast a vote during the Covid-19 pandemic with public heath mandates still in effect during the 2020 General Election. Maricopa Election Management had the opportunity to implement management overrides during the election tabulation because of, once again, the Covid-19 Pandemic. Election Management in Maricopa County would have been more motivated to abuse of power to facilitate fraud if their political beliefs aligned with each other knowing the Maricopa County elections would likely sway the entire state of Arizona for Electoral College purposes.