Maricopa County Leaders call on AZ Senate to stop sham investigation of 2020 election

[essentialsaltes]

The Republican-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on Monday denounced an ongoing audit of the 2020 election vote as a “sham” and a “con,” calling on the GOP-led state Senate to end the controversial recount that has been championed by former president Donald Trump.

In a calculated show of unity, they were joined by Maricopa’s other elected officials: the sheriff, a Democrat; and the Republican county recorder, who leads the elections office.

“Our state has become a laughingstock,” the county officials wrote. “Worse, this ‘audit’ is encouraging our citizens to distrust elections, which weakens our democratic republic.”

On the one hand, this erosion of confidence is mostly likely to affect the most conspiratorial minded on the right. As we saw in Georgia, this may produce Democratic victories in a purple-red state like Arizona. On the other hand, distrust of elections is what may produce insurrections, again perpetrated by the most conspiratorial minded.

Jointly, the county officials agreed that they would refuse to attend a meeting that had been called Tuesday by Fann to discuss what she had termed “serious issues” with the vote that Cyber Ninjas claims to have identified.

Supervisor Bill Gates (R) said at Monday’s meeting that no county official would attend Fann’s meeting.

“This board [is not] going to be part of a political theater broadcast on live stream by OAN,” he said.

Much of the county’s 13-page letter — and an accompanying 17-page technical memo — was devoted to disputing those claims [of shenanigans alleged by the ninjas and their handlers].

On Monday, Reps. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) and Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.) joined Reps. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in signing a letter defending the audit to the Justice Department, which had previously questioned whether the process complies with federal law that requires the preservation of ballots for 22 months after an election.

 

[Nithavela]

If the democrats really wish to restore trust in the democratic process, they should just allow audits until they return the result that is demanded by Trump. What are they hiding?

 

[Albion]

Actually, "our state" has not become a laughing stock. However, Maricopa County may have, thanks to the obstructionism and delays taking place there. I personally think "laughing stock" is an exaggeration, though.

Anyway, is there anything very surprising about the people who run Maricopa County squirming like this after all that has happened? Well, no.

And wouldn't it have been better just to cooperate in the inquiry and let the results be known, let the chips fall where they might, whether that showed real fraud or just incompetence or nothing wrong at all??

 

[essentialsaltes]

Anyway, is there anything very surprising about the people who run Maricopa County squirming like this after all that has happened?

All what that has happened?

Anyway, Arizona already has election laws and audits and recounts in place. This 'double secret probation' nonsense created for political reasons and run by biased novices is not going to produce anything of value.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Observers of Arizona’s Republican-led recount have found security gates left open, confidential manuals left unattended and quality-control measures disregarded, according to the Arizona secretary of state’s office.

In one instance, a software update caused so many errors that the company handling the recount abandoned the update and went back to the old software. In other instances, prohibited items including cellphones and pens with black or blue ink were allowed onto the counting floor.

And in an alleged incident last week, audit spokesman and former state Republican Party chairman Randy Pullen told an observer that the pink T-shirt the observer was required to wear while watching the proceedings made him “look like a transgender,” according to the Arizona secretary of state’s office.

Observers of the audit are provided with pink T-shirts to wear while on the counting floor. In one of the incidents documented by the secretary of state’s office, observers last week said that organizers “refer to them as ‘pinkies’ or ‘pinkos’ to either imply and/or assert that the observers are communists.”

The audit’s Twitter account, @ArizonaAudit, tweeted last month that Hobbs’s previous allegations, made in a six-page letter, were “baseless claimes [sic].”

 

[Nithavela]

Observers of Arizona’s Republican-led recount have found security gates left open, confidential manuals left unattended and quality-control measures disregarded, according to the Arizona secretary of state’s office.

In one instance, a software update caused so many errors that the company handling the recount abandoned the update and went back to the old software. In other instances, prohibited items including cellphones and pens with black or blue ink were allowed onto the counting floor.

And in an alleged incident last week, audit spokesman and former state Republican Party chairman Randy Pullen told an observer that the pink T-shirt the observer was required to wear while watching the proceedings made him “look like a transgender,” according to the Arizona secretary of state’s office.

Observers of the audit are provided with pink T-shirts to wear while on the counting floor. In one of the incidents documented by the secretary of state’s office, observers last week said that organizers “refer to them as ‘pinkies’ or ‘pinkos’ to either imply and/or assert that the observers are communists.”

The audit’s Twitter account, @ArizonaAudit, tweeted last month that Hobbs’s previous allegations, made in a six-page letter, were “baseless claimes [sic].”

 

[Whyayeman]

I personally think "laughing stock" is an exaggeration, though.

Well, it is not that funny, but it is a humiliation.

 

[Whyayeman]

And wouldn't it have been better just to cooperate in the inquiry and let the results be known, let the chips fall where they might, whether that showed real fraud or just incompetence or nothing wrong at all?

This is an example of a kangaroo court if ever there was one in modern America.

 

[wing2000]

This is an example of a kangaroo court if ever there was one in modern America.

And an example of state leaders failing to honor the election and those who certified it.

 

[wing2000]

...and now my ballot (or copy thereof) has taken a trip to Montana:

A contractor hired by the Arizona Senate is reviewing Maricopa County's 2020 election data from an undisclosed location in Montana, with no oversight from state or county officials.

Ben Cotton, founder of tech firm CyFIR, a Senate subcontractor, made copies of the county's election server and other election data and then drove the copies to a "secure lab" in Montana, according to Senate liaison Ken Bennett. The Senate was given county voters' private information, but Bennett said he doesn't know if Cotton has copies of that in Montana.

It appears that the "secure lab" might be a home owned by Cotton in the northern Montana wilderness. Bennett said he didn't know, and Cotton and Cyber Ninjas, the Senate's main contractors, refuse to answer questions.

Get Access

 

[Brihaha]

Arizona conservatives who are undermining faith in our democracy are really sewing seeds for another insurrection. As well as advocating for a seemingly fascist form of government where undesired results can be overturned easily. How can a party expect to gain the votes they need to win future elections by telling their voters our system is corrupt without proof? It seems very counterintuitive. And why would voters choose a party who wants the prerogative to deem our will inconsequential in a Democratic Republic? It seems the very definition of fascism, not democracy.

 

[keith99]

...
And in an alleged incident last week, audit spokesman and former state Republican Party chairman Randy Pullen told an observer that the pink T-shirt the observer was required to wear while watching the proceedings made him “look like a transgender,” according to the Arizona secretary of state’s office.
...

Well at least we are not having show trials of anyone who does not back Trump where they are given pants far too large and no belt to hold them up.

YET

 

[GreatLakes4Ever]

...and now my ballot (or copy thereof) has taken a trip to Montana:

A contractor hired by the Arizona Senate is reviewing Maricopa County's 2020 election data from an undisclosed location in Montana, with no oversight from state or county officials.

Ben Cotton, founder of tech firm CyFIR, a Senate subcontractor, made copies of the county's election server and other election data and then drove the copies to a "secure lab" in Montana, according to Senate liaison Ken Bennett. The Senate was given county voters' private information, but Bennett said he doesn't know if Cotton has copies of that in Montana.

It appears that the "secure lab" might be a home owned by Cotton in the northern Montana wilderness. Bennett said he didn't know, and Cotton and Cyber Ninjas, the Senate's main contractors, refuse to answer questions.

Get Access

This is a deviously brilliant strategy. They have damaged the integrity of the voter data so much that now when they end up finding nothing (because there is nothing to find), the next group Arizona brings in to audit is going to say the data is damaged and can’t be trusted so we will never know for sure (conveniently leaving out the fact that it was the Republicans hand selected idiots that damaged the data on the first place). It gets them to continue the lie that election was compromised without ever having to produce evidence of it.

 

[Whyayeman]

Seven months on and nothing to show. There is still no actual evidence of systematic fraud.

What cunning scallywags those Democrats are!

 

[Aryeh Jay]

This is a deviously brilliant strategy. They have damaged the integrity of the voter data so much that now when they end up finding nothing (because there is nothing to find), the next group Arizona brings in to audit is going to say the data is damaged and can’t be trusted so we will never know for sure (conveniently leaving out the fact that it was the Republicans hand selected idiots that damaged the data on the first place). It gets them to continue the lie that election was compromised without ever having to produce evidence of it.

I find it insulting and disrespectful to even suggest that the Party whose members took a crooked Democratic business man and rebranded him as a Republican, think satanic shape shifting lizard pedophiles run the country, secret space lasers start fires, a violent storming of the Capitol is the same as a Sunday school tour, not wanting an investigation of the violent liberal antifa BLM mob that stormed the Capitol disguised as Trump supporters, equate mask wearing with the systematic slaughter of millions, and has no problem paying off inappropriate contentstars would hand select idiot's to do a recount to prove Trump won the election. For shame.

 

[wing2000]

Trump called Arizona Senate president to thank her ‘for pushing to prove any fraud’ in election, emails show

....Karen's emails:

Hundreds of pages of emails related to the GOP-ordered audit underway in Maricopa County were obtained by the nonprofit legal watchdog group American Oversight through a records request under the Freedom of Information Act. The group published them Friday, along with a scathing statement that decried the audit as a “sham partisan crusade.”

In one email dated Dec. 2, Arizona state Senate President Karen Fann (R) told two constituents that she had spoken with Giuliani “at least 6 times over the past two weeks.”

In another exchange dated Dec. 28, a constituent threatened that Fann would be recalled by “the new patriot movement of the United States” for not standing up for Trump.

Fann assured him that the state Senate was “doing everything legally possible to get the forensic audit done” and that they planned to sue the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. (The Republican-led board in November had voted unanimously to certify the county’s election results, with the board chairman declaring there was no evidence of fraud or misconduct “and that is with a big zero.”)

“I have been in numerous conversations with Rudy Guiliani [sic] over the past weeks trying to get this done,” Fann wrote in the Dec. 28 message. “I have the full support of him and a personal call from President Trump thanking us for pushing to prove any fraud.”

In an email dated Nov. 30, Fann noted that she had asked Trump’s legal team for evidence of “rampant fraud” and to file a lawsuit so the certification of the results can be put on hold, to no avail.


....and yet, she moved forward with the "audit" anyway. I'm not sure who is the bigger coward in our state - Sen leader Karen Famm or Gov Doug Ducey, whom to date, has been mum on the subject.

 

[Whyayeman]

In an email dated Nov. 30, Fann noted that she had asked Trump’s legal team for evidence of “rampant fraud”

You would think Four Seasons Giuliani would have found time to give her what she asked for. I think he has given up.

 

[Valletta]

Trump called Arizona Senate president to thank her ‘for pushing to prove any fraud’ in election, emails show

....Karen's emails:

Hundreds of pages of emails related to the GOP-ordered audit underway in Maricopa County were obtained by the nonprofit legal watchdog group American Oversight through a records request under the Freedom of Information Act. The group published them Friday, along with a scathing statement that decried the audit as a “sham partisan crusade.”

In one email dated Dec. 2, Arizona state Senate President Karen Fann (R) told two constituents that she had spoken with Giuliani “at least 6 times over the past two weeks.”

In another exchange dated Dec. 28, a constituent threatened that Fann would be recalled by “the new patriot movement of the United States” for not standing up for Trump.

Fann assured him that the state Senate was “doing everything legally possible to get the forensic audit done” and that they planned to sue the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. (The Republican-led board in November had voted unanimously to certify the county’s election results, with the board chairman declaring there was no evidence of fraud or misconduct “and that is with a big zero.”)

“I have been in numerous conversations with Rudy Guiliani [sic] over the past weeks trying to get this done,” Fann wrote in the Dec. 28 message. “I have the full support of him and a personal call from President Trump thanking us for pushing to prove any fraud.”

In an email dated Nov. 30, Fann noted that she had asked Trump’s legal team for evidence of “rampant fraud” and to file a lawsuit so the certification of the results can be put on hold, to no avail.


....and yet, she moved forward with the "audit" anyway. I'm not sure who is the bigger coward in our state - Sen leader Karen Famm or Gov Doug Ducey, whom to date, has been mum on the subject.

This historic audit is the first full forensic election audit in the United States. You know there is little substance to objections when they go to the extend of quoting a "constituent" letter. Note too that the people who demand proof of fraud are often the same people who block access to election information. We already know there was wrongdoing, such as votes from dead people. The audit will determine the extent of cheating and hopefully people can come together to determine solutions to deter cheating in future elections. Let the facts be established by waiting for the end of the audit and then go from there.

 

[Whyayeman]

We already know there was wrongdoing, such as votes from dead people.

These few detected votes were as much for Republicans as Democrats. There has never been a shred of actual evidence of systematic fraud. It is the 'forensic evidence' which is fraudulent because the people being given access to the ballot are biassed, have no record of either forensics or seeking evidence. There are numerous examples of the ballots being exposed to tampering by these hirelings of the Republican Party. This renders any 'evidence' they claim to discover invalid.

The suspicion will always be that these exercises are at best designed to plant the idea that frauds occurred; or at worst just to plant votes.

This whole idea of election rigging has one source - Trump. Seeing early in 2020 that he might lose he began to trail the idea that there were dark secret forces at work and that he might not accept the result if it went against him. Of the dark forces there is no sign; yet he did not accept the result.

 

[Valletta]

These few detected votes were as much for Republicans as Democrats. There has never been a shred of actual evidence of systematic fraud. It is the 'forensic evidence' which is fraudulent because the people being given access to the ballot are biassed, have no record of either forensics or seeking evidence. There are numerous examples of the ballots being exposed to tampering by these hirelings of the Republican Party. This renders any 'evidence' they claim to discover invalid.

The suspicion will always be that these exercises are at best designed to plant the idea that frauds occurred; or at worst just to plant votes.

This whole idea of election rigging has one source - Trump. Seeing early in 2020 that he might lose he began to trail the idea that there were dark secret forces at work and that he might not accept the result if it went against him. Of the dark forces there is no sign; yet he did not accept the result.

I never said wrongdoing was just in one party, I'm one of those real independents. Three times I have voted for presidential candidates who were not major party candidates, I was in the 1. something percent of Americans who did so in one election. I have fought against government corruption in both parties for decades. Who said there was systemic fraud? What happened was that Trump was winning in the middle of the night, suddenly the counting stopped in the middle of the night, the election results reversed, and the explanations put forth by election officials turned out to be lies. Later sworn complaints came in about how Democrat officials harassed, shoved, and blocked Republican observers, along with a lot of suspicious stuff. That's double enough reason for a full audit. The lack of accountability for the officials, for instance, who yelled racial slurs and physically shoved observers is triple reason.
An analogy would be the Chinese virus, the origin was just miles away from a lab that experimented with the coronavirus, making the probability high it came from that lab. It was explained by Dr. Fauci that the sequences from bat to human were there, so it seemed nearly impossible it was engineered. Now we know Fauci lied, the exact opposite is true. Reasonable people demand full investigations, don't blame the reasonable people, find the ones who lied and committed other wrongdoing and hold them accountable.