Arizona Officials Unite To Take Down Sham Maricopa County ‘Audit’

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In Arizona, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R) have issued new, complementary statements shredding the so-called audit that has been underway in Maricopa County. That supposed audit has been led by Republicans from the state Senate, who hired a firm called Cyber Ninjas to lead the effort, despite that company’s total lack of previous experience in election auditing. There is no legitimate evidence suggesting a systematic problem with the integrity of last year’s election — and the presidential election results have already undergone rigorous scrutiny — but Republicans have pushed forward anyway.

The ineptitude that has defined the Maricopa County audit means that reports produced by Cyber Ninjas will simply not be reliable. As Hobbs’s office put it:

‘Despite frequent references to this review as an audit, the exercise undertaken by the Arizona Senate’s Florida-based contractor, Cyber Ninjas, fails to meet industry standards for any credible audit, much less for an election audit… The Senate’s contractors demonstrated a lack of understanding of election processes and procedures both at a state and county level.’

Meanwhile, Richer — whose job responsibilities as Maricopa County Recorder include maintaining voter registration files for local individuals — also went after the “audit.” As he pointedly put it

‘Nobody stole Maricopa County’s elections. Elections in Maricopa County aren’t rigged… I believe in the court system. I believe in facts and logic. I believe that Maricopa County has many safeguards against widespread fraud. I believe in the simple, straight-forward, data-backed explanation that Trump lost many Republican voters in affluent areas. Accordingly, I know Joe Biden won Maricopa County.’

Will these repudiations of the so-called audit lead those Republicans behind it to finally acknowledge the truth? Probably not. It seems safe to assume that, years down the line, certain Republicans will still be pushing the nonsensical myth of the rigged election of 2020. These false claims are damaging democracy in the United States through sowing baseless mistrust in the electoral system. The claims are also providing cover for those who are essentially opposed to democracy itself. Read more at this link.