In an indication of just how low state-level Republicans will stoop to propagate Trump’s Big Lie of “election fraud,” the Arizona state Senate has commissioned yet another “audit” of 2.1 million Maricopa County ballots cast in the 2020 election. The “audit” is being conducted by Cyber Ninjas, a company led by a right-wing conspiracy theorist named Doug Logan. and is being monitored by far-right pro-Trump attorney and fellow conspiracy theorist Lin Wood, and the disinformation hub of One America News Network (OANN).
As reported by Sam Levine for The Guardian, this audit was ordered by Arizona’s Republican-controlled state Senate despite (or, more likely, because of) the fact that two prior audits found no evidence of voter fraud in the state’s balloting. Of course, it also comes several months after Arizona officials certified the state’s 2020 election results. It will include a hand recount, presumably by people specially chosen by Logan’s firm. The recount will also presumably operate under the direction of Wood, who, despite his purported familiarity with election laws, has no credible claim to representing the people of Arizona. It also incorporates a strategy to personally visit Arizona voters identified in the ballots, which may be a violation of federal law.
Levine’s report observes that this transparent attempt to “discover” voter fraud where none exists has already earned the derision of several voting rights groups, such as the Carter Center and the Brennan Center for Justice. In a letter directed to the president of the state Senate, those organizations, with decades of actual election monitoring experience behind them, noted that Logan’s company lacked both the independence and the technical expertise to undertake such a task. Not that any of this would particularly matter to Wood or OANN, both of which have created a profitable cottage industry out of hawking election lies.
From The Guardian’s report:
Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, expressed her disgust at the attempt by her Republican colleagues to manufacture doubts about the state’s election results for political benefit.
As reported by Talking Points Memo, this effort to impugn the results of the 2020 election in Arizona has some well-heeled backers. Wood himself claims to have donated $50,000 to the audit effort through his group, Fight Back. Meanwhile, Logan, who previously took part in preparing a bogus list of election fraud claims that was ultimately posted on disgraced Trump lawyer Sidney Powell’s website, was still accepting private donations to the effort earlier this month, according to The Washington Post.
In a possibly unintended insult to Arizona veterans who fought and died to protect the integrity of our elections, the audit will be conducted at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, with, as TPM report notes, 24-hour security. That security is being arranged by the state Senate; it is not clear who is paying for it, or for that matter, who is paying for the remainder of the costs of conducting the audit, which will likely take months to perform. The GOP-led state Senate has allotted $150,000 in Arizona taxpayer funds to the effort, but that will not cover the entire cost.
The spokesman for the audit is a former Republican secretary of state named Ken Bennett.
But while the funding sources of the audit remain a bit murky at this point, it doesn’t appear that anyone doubts what the results will be. Certainly not Lin Wood, who heaped praise on Logan and his company slated to perform the work.
How reassuring.
Of course the purpose of all this—aside from incidentally profiting those involved—is to continue sowing doubts about the 2020 election and the process as a whole. It is part of a coordinated state-by-state effort by the Republican Party and its media enablers to justify unnecessary voter suppression measures against (in this case) Arizonans, all with the goal of keeping Republicans in power. As pointed out by Levine, that effort was made abundantly clear on Wednesday, when the Republican-dominated Arizona House voted to impose new restrictions on voting, including making mail-in ballots more difficult to obtain.
Friday, Apr 23, 2021 · 12:30:03 PM +00:00 · Dartagnan
Late Thursday evening, after this piece was originally published, Arizona Democrats filed suit to have the state senate’s audit plan declared unlawful. A hearing was set for Friday.
As of 3:20 EST Friday the Judge had called a temporary halt to the audit on the condition that Democrats pt up $1 million to cover potential costs of the delay, while the Court reviews the legality of the proposed audit plans.
Friday, Apr 23, 2021 · 11:48:19 PM +00:00 · Dartagnan
Please see Mother Mags’ post on the most recent developments regarding the Democratic lawsuit. As reported by the Washington Post on Saturday, Democrats have declined to post the $1,000,000 bond set forth by the court. Accordingly, the audit remains as scheduled.
As reported by Sam Levine for The Guardian, this audit was ordered by Arizona’s Republican-controlled state Senate despite (or, more likely, because of) the fact that two prior audits found no evidence of voter fraud in the state’s balloting. Of course, it also comes several months after Arizona officials certified the state’s 2020 election results. It will include a hand recount, presumably by people specially chosen by Logan’s firm. The recount will also presumably operate under the direction of Wood, who, despite his purported familiarity with election laws, has no credible claim to representing the people of Arizona. It also incorporates a strategy to personally visit Arizona voters identified in the ballots, which may be a violation of federal law.
Levine’s report observes that this transparent attempt to “discover” voter fraud where none exists has already earned the derision of several voting rights groups, such as the Carter Center and the Brennan Center for Justice. In a letter directed to the president of the state Senate, those organizations, with decades of actual election monitoring experience behind them, noted that Logan’s company lacked both the independence and the technical expertise to undertake such a task. Not that any of this would particularly matter to Wood or OANN, both of which have created a profitable cottage industry out of hawking election lies.
From The Guardian’s report:
Arizona’s Democratic secretary of state, Katie Hobbs, expressed her disgust at the attempt by her Republican colleagues to manufacture doubts about the state’s election results for political benefit.
As reported by Talking Points Memo, this effort to impugn the results of the 2020 election in Arizona has some well-heeled backers. Wood himself claims to have donated $50,000 to the audit effort through his group, Fight Back. Meanwhile, Logan, who previously took part in preparing a bogus list of election fraud claims that was ultimately posted on disgraced Trump lawyer Sidney Powell’s website, was still accepting private donations to the effort earlier this month, according to The Washington Post.
In a possibly unintended insult to Arizona veterans who fought and died to protect the integrity of our elections, the audit will be conducted at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, with, as TPM report notes, 24-hour security. That security is being arranged by the state Senate; it is not clear who is paying for it, or for that matter, who is paying for the remainder of the costs of conducting the audit, which will likely take months to perform. The GOP-led state Senate has allotted $150,000 in Arizona taxpayer funds to the effort, but that will not cover the entire cost.
The spokesman for the audit is a former Republican secretary of state named Ken Bennett.
But while the funding sources of the audit remain a bit murky at this point, it doesn’t appear that anyone doubts what the results will be. Certainly not Lin Wood, who heaped praise on Logan and his company slated to perform the work.
How reassuring.
Of course the purpose of all this—aside from incidentally profiting those involved—is to continue sowing doubts about the 2020 election and the process as a whole. It is part of a coordinated state-by-state effort by the Republican Party and its media enablers to justify unnecessary voter suppression measures against (in this case) Arizonans, all with the goal of keeping Republicans in power. As pointed out by Levine, that effort was made abundantly clear on Wednesday, when the Republican-dominated Arizona House voted to impose new restrictions on voting, including making mail-in ballots more difficult to obtain.
Friday, Apr 23, 2021 · 12:30:03 PM +00:00 · Dartagnan
Late Thursday evening, after this piece was originally published, Arizona Democrats filed suit to have the state senate’s audit plan declared unlawful. A hearing was set for Friday.
As of 3:20 EST Friday the Judge had called a temporary halt to the audit on the condition that Democrats pt up $1 million to cover potential costs of the delay, while the Court reviews the legality of the proposed audit plans.
Friday, Apr 23, 2021 · 11:48:19 PM +00:00 · Dartagnan
Please see Mother Mags’ post on the most recent developments regarding the Democratic lawsuit. As reported by the Washington Post on Saturday, Democrats have declined to post the $1,000,000 bond set forth by the court. Accordingly, the audit remains as scheduled.