What’s Going On In Arizona And What Can Be Done About It?
Donald Trump lost Arizona by a small margin of more than 10,000 votes to President Joe Biden. https://results.arizona.vote/#/featured/18/0 Democrat Mark Kelly won the US Senate seat over Republican Senator by an even larger margin, close to 60,000 votes. Democrats won 5 of the 9 House seats; all incumbents won. Voter turnout was very high -- nearly 80%. Mail in ballots were up by about 50%.
Maricopa County (Phoenix) accounts for a very large share of the statewide vote and Joe Biden won it by about 45,000 votes. https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-elections/arizona-president-results Pima County (Tucson) is the second largest county, and Joe Biden won it by nearly 100,000 votes. Most of the large counties performed a hand recount and audit of the election results; the recounts confirmed Biden’s victory. https://azsos.gov/election/2020-general-election-hand-count-results Over the winter, Maricopa County conducted an independent audit of the Dominion voting machines and found they were completely accurate. https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/forensic-audit-of-dominion-voting-machines-in-arizona-show-no-evidence-of-vote-switching/
Trump and his Arizona allies brought eight lawsuits challenging the Arizona election results; they lost everyone of them, including twice in the Arizona Supreme Court and once in the federal district court. https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-supreme-court-upholds-election-challenge-dismissal1 The Arizona GOP has been ordered to reimburse $18,000 in legal fees to the state because its lawsuit was so flimsy and frivolous. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2021/03/15/arizona-gop-must-pay-18000-in-legal-fees-for-failed-election-lawsuit/?sh=2b786632318f
The Arizona State Senate under GOP control has now funded and initiated an election audit of Maricopa County. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/25/us/Election-audit-Arizona-Republicans.html The audit cannot change the election results, but it can provide fuel for state legislative efforts to suppress the vote in future elections. Furthermore it can provide fodder for Trump’s big lies that he won the 2020 election, and it was stolen from him. It should be noted at the outset that the Maricopa Board of Elections has and has had four Republicans and one Democrat.
The Arizona State Senate GOP leadership has hired Cyber Ninjas, a Florida firm to conduct the audit. They have little to no experience in conducting election audits and are headed by a noted conspiracy theorist who maintains that Trump won Arizona by 200,000 votes. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/25/arizona-republicans-election-audit-cyber-ninjas None of the prominent Florida Republicans, where the Cyber Ninjas company is based, had ever heard of it. https://www.politico.com/news/2021/04/26/republicans-arizona-vote-audit-florida-484737
The Arizona State Senate has committed $150,000 for the audit – an amount that will be insufficient for the audit. Trump supporters and right wing news personalities are raising donations around the country to support the Cyber Ninja audit. https://www.12news.com/article/news/politics/sunday-square-off/promoter-of-false-election-fraud-claims-is-raising-money-for-arizona-senate-gops-election-audit-is-that-even-legal/75-a00e4e89-20d8-4588-b91d-50a32abbe9e8 Doug Logan, the head of Cyber Ninjas has an extensive record of support for election conspiracy theories and no demonstrated experience in auditing elections. https://www.azmirror.com/2021/03/31/arizona-senate-hires-a-stop-the-steal-advocate-to-lead-2020-election-audit/
A manual recount is underway having reviewed 10,000 ballots so far out of 2.1 million. The Arizona Senate and Cyber Ninjas are seeking to conduct the audit in secret, to prohibit press access and to keep their procedures and standards for conducting the audit secret. https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/550314-company-asks-to-keep-procedures-for-arizona-county-recount-secret “The judge ordered the company to follow ballot and voter secrecy laws and demanded it turn over written procedures and training manuals before a hearing on Monday.” https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/25/arizona-republicans-election-audit-cyber-ninjas On Tuesday, a new judge on the case ordered that the Arizona Secretary of State have access to the site and the materials where the audit is being conducted. https://www.12news.com/article/news/politics/judge-rules-cyber-ninjas-cant-hide-procedures-from-public-in-arizona-senate-gops-election-audit/75-cefbe785-1e7c-48c1-8aa4-6ca19bce9856
Apparently, Cyber Ninjas are looking for watermarks on the ballots (there are none in Maricopa) and folds or creases (some have them, others don’t). https://www.abc15.com/news/region-phoenix-metro/central-phoenix/abc15-uncovers-what-cyber-ninjas-is-looking-for-on-your-ballot-during-election-audit Apparently, Cyber Ninjas is so unfamiliar with Arizona election procedures that it has been marking the ballots being reviewed with blue ink – a “no, no” which can invalidate and cause the machines to misread the ballot. https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2021/04/23/cyber-ninjas-have-no-idea-how-secure-arizona-election-audit/7354216002/
What needs to be done? The Arizona Senate GOP leadership purportedly wanted the audit in order to assure the state’s rank and file voters that the election was fairly conducted and free of fraud; instead they hired an unknown firm with sketchy and compromised leadership and no experience conducting these types of audits. Taking them at their word, they should fire Cyber Ninjas and hire a well-known and reputable election audit firm whose reputation is beyond reproach. They should assure that all auditing procedures are fully transparent and bi-partisan/non-partisan. Arizona lawyers, law firms and major corporations should take the lead in persuading the Senate GOP leaders to alter course and not further disgrace the state’s hitherto excellent reputation for running fair elections and abiding by their voters’ results.
Trump has repeatedly told the nation’s voters “big lies” about the last election; some of his most ardent supporters believing those lies invaded the nation’s Capitol, and people died in the ensuing hand to hand fighting in the Capitol hallways. At least two Arizona GOP representatives, Paul Gosar and Andy Biggs, are alleged by one of the main organizers to have played key roles in planning, orchestrating and inciting the rioters. https://www.marketwatch.com/story/arizona-republicans-positioned-at-center-of-post-election-chaos-with-two-said-to-have-aided-siege-planner-01610679895 Representative Biggs denies being involved. https://www.azfamily.com/news/politics/arizona-rep-andy-biggs-denies-helping-plan-deadly-riot-at-u-s-capitol-on-jan/article_2dc3a8be-5d30-11eb-944d-db4b1feeec62.html Investigations to assess their involvement appear warranted.
Prepared by: Lucien Wulsin
Dated: 4/29/21