Runbeck Election Services (RES) confirmed this week that Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma’s (R-Peoria) brother, Mihai Toma, purchased a majority stake in the company on August 18.
RES is the private company that processes Maricopa County’s mail-in ballots.
Mihai Toma (pictured above, left) is the president and CEO of Black Mountain Investment Company, whose subsidiary Lincoln Shields acquired the majority purchase. The speaker owns a large share of Black Mountain.
Kari Lake, who continues to challenge her election loss in the gubernatorial race and has expressed concerns about hundreds of thousands of ballots lacking a chain of custody at RES, told The Arizona Sun Times, “I don’t think it is ethical for a member of the state legislature to have a money making interest in the mail-in ballot or election system while they have the power to write law pertaining to elections. I don’t see us getting rid of mail-in ballots as long as Ben Toma has a money making opportunity in the mail-in ballot system.”
Read the rest of the article at The Arizona Sun Times