The Arizona Election Official Who Botched the Pinal County Count Received $25,000 Bonus Before Skipping Town

Who is Virginia Ross? She had one job. She was supposed to make sure the Pinal County general election count was done properly in Arizona. Last week, we learned there was a substantial discrepancy that wasn’t reported until AFTER the results were certified. Now, we know WHY they didn’t get reported.

It wasn’t just for the sake of stealing another election. It was so someone could “earn” a big bonus. According to Kari Lake:

Pinal County discovered a 600 vote discrepancy during @AbrahamHamadeh’s recount. @katiehobbs intercepted this information & hid it from Abe & me while we were filling our lawsuits. And now we find out their Elections Director was given a $25,000 bonus! Unbelievably corrupt.

Pinal County discovered a 600 vote discrepancy during @AbrahamHamadeh's recount.@katiehobbs intercepted this information & hid it from Abe & me while we were filling our lawsuits.

And now we find out their Elections Director was given a $25,000 bonus!

Unbelievably corrupt. pic.twitter.com/TfSwDMQdSs

— Kari Lake (@KariLake) January 5, 2023

Unbelievably corrupt, indeed.

According to VoteBeat:

Pinal County’s outgoing elections director collected a $25,000 bonus for running a smooth election despite reporting final results with significant inaccuracies, including around 500 uncounted votes in the neck-and-neck attorney general race.

Virginia Ross, the former county recorder brought in to oversee the election on a short-term contract, either did not catch the mistakes or failed to disclose them before the results were certified in November, according to county officials.

The inaccuracies were only revealed publicly last week as part of the results of the statewide recount, and officials attributed the problems mostly to human error during ballot counting on Election Day. This week the new elections director indicated that Ross may not have taken steps after the election to ensure the results were accurate. Regardless, she collected the bonus and retired.

Ross was brought on specifically to fix the county’s elections after a disastrous primary in which county officials made mistakes they later said were easily preventable, such as not ordering enough ballots for polling places. Ross was paid a towering $175,000 for four months of work, with the $25,000 bonus contingent on certain conditions.

County Supervisor Kevin Cavanaugh said at a supervisors meeting Wednesday that he would like to consider whether it’s possible to rescind Ross’s bonus. A few residents who spoke at the meeting demanded it.

“If errors were known to the board we would have not likely canvassed,” Cavanaugh told Votebeat prior to the meeting, referring to the supervisors’ Nov. 21 vote to certify the election results. “If we had not canvassed, Virginia Ross would not have received her $25,000 bonus.”

$25,000 is certainly enough money to make someone cover-up mistakes. Had the mistakes been known, it appears that bonus would have been withheld. Unfortunately, nobody can seem to reach Virginia Ross. According to the article:

Votebeat was unable to seek comment from Ross, who has since moved out of state and has no publicly listed contact information or identifiable social media accounts. A county spokesperson said he did not have a way to immediately reach her.

Convenient.

The more we learn about the 2022 elections in Arizona, the more questions pop up. Unfortunately, the judiciary seems bent on keeping the fraudulent results in play. How can any Arizonan have faith in such a corrupt election process?