The Big Lie won’t go away. And now we have Republicans in Arizona who want to give the conspiracy theory new life.
You may have heard about an “audit” that is happening in Arizona. First off, I’ve put the word in quotes because there is nothing official about what is happening. As you will see, this is a partisan effort by the Republicans to cast doubt on the 2020 election.
The Arizona Republicans in the legislature are paying a Florida company named Cyber Ninjas (yes, seriously) to manually recount all of the ballots for Maricopa County, Arizona’s largest county. They are only looking at the presidential and Senate races, which we all know were won by Democrats. Cyber Ninjas is owned by Doug Logan, who posted multiple tweets, hashtags, and memes spreading conspiracy theories about the 2020 election before deleting his account.
Logan has said he wants this to be a transparent effort but so far, this is what we’ve got:
- He refuses to disclose who is paying his firm. Reports show that the Arizona Republicans have put up some of the money, and the right wing news outlet OANN raised money to give to Cyber Ninjas. We don’t know who else is funding this sham.
- He refuses to disclose who the volunteers are who are counting the ballots, what training they’ve received, or if they are bipartisan.
- The state senate has banned media from the Veterans Memorial Coliseum where this is taking place. Journalists can sign up for a 6-hour shift as an observer, but cannot take any photographs or take any notes.
- There are cameras that are live-streaming the process but they are so far away from the tables, no details can be seen at all.
- Cyber Ninjas didn’t know that blue pens are banned around ballots (because they can be picked up by ballot reading machines) and volunteers were using them on the first day before the issue was raised.
- They had not secured the Coliseum, which was discovered by a television crew who found a door propped open last Friday.
- Cyber Ninjas is not sharing what their procedures are for the recount, which election experts say is a big red flag.
Arizona’s Secretary of State (a Democrat) called on the Arizona Attorney General (a Republican) to investigate the lack of security around the audit, but the AG turned her down.
The Arizona Democrats have filed a lawsuit seeking to dismiss the “audit”, and Judge Christopher Coury of the Maricopa County Superior Court has granted them a pause in the effort until evidence can be reviewed in a hearing today (Monday.)
“Friday’s order requires the company to hand over any documents detailing their internal procedures for the audit, ‘which should have been made immediately available to the public if this were a transparent or credible process,’ Raquel Terán, chair of the Arizona Democratic Party, said in a statement.”
Action: If you are an Arizona voter, please call your state legislators (contact info HERE). If they are a Democrat, tell them to get loud about this sham effort. If they are a Republican, tell them that if they back this effort, you’ll do everything in your power to vote them out in the next election.
As far as I can see, this is a trainwreck that’s only designed to prop up the Big Lie. This is dangerous and every Republican who doesn’t disavow this effort should be thrown out of office. If they don’t care about the integrity of our democracy, then they need to get out of our government.
Sources I used to write this post:
Arizona Republicans deploy Cyber Ninjas in pro-Trump election audit
Arizona election audit: Here’s what you’re seeing on the video feeds as counting continues Saturday
Arizona attorney general rejects call for probe of Maricopa County 2020 election audit
Blue ink, black ink, red ink: Why ink color matters when handling Arizona ballots
Arizona judge suspends Republican vote ‘audit’ being conducted by Cyber Ninjas, a Florida company led by a pro-Trump conspiracy theorist
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I wonder what they think they are going to accomplish? It’s not as if they’re going to unseat President Biden. The only thing they can possibly accomplish is to keep the blood pressure of this nation at an all-time high, to cause even more divisiveness and disharmony than we already have. Idiots! Sigh. Good, informative post TS … I shall reblog this afternoon. Thank you!
They can’t overturn the election. But no matter what, Republicans all over the country will see this as evidence that the election was stolen. How? Well, if the “audit” is completed and a report comes out that contradicts the two official audit/recounts, they’ll believe that govt can’t be trusted, just as they suspected. But, if the Democrats/court shuts down the process, they’ll see this as Democrats “trying to cover up” evidence. It’s a lose-lose.
Sigh. Indeed it is.
This one is so awful—and seemingly unstoppable—that it’s almost unfathomable. And the fact that the judge asked the Democrats to post a million dollar bond to defray costs of a pause just adds to the awfulness.
I am concerned that this clear voter fraud will encourage similar dirty tricks in other swing states. Anyone who thinks our democracy is secure for the next few years is not, I’ve sadly concluded, facing reality.
I hope the Democrats are preparing to challenge the rushed-through Census data count that has resulted in gains in Florida, Texas, etc, and losses in several blue states. We need greater attention to state legislatures.
I still don’t understand how states are still involved in federal elections. It is not up to any state to determine anything at all beyond their own bailiwick!