The Arizona GOP's "Fraudit" Lurches On

In the continuing saga of the "fraudit" in Maricopa County Arizona, the county Board of Supervisors has put its foot down and has refused to provide additional election material in response to new subpoenas filed by the Arizona Senate.

The supervisors letter clearly states that they will not comply with the request as they have provided ample material and time to conduct the audit and the latest demands are simply a fishing expedition to produce a fraudulent result.  From his statement:

"It has now been 10 months since the November 2020 election, yet the Arizona Senate Republican leadership continues to deny reality.  The election held in Maricopa country was one of the best-run elections in the U.S.  Real election experts all agree on that point.  

Maricopa County long ago provided the Arizona Senate everything competent auditors would need to confirm the accuracy and security of the November General Election.  The latest Senate demands are an attempt to distract attention fro their botched audit and conspiracy-obsessed contractors."

Without seemingly producing any results, the audit team has now seized upon the wacko conspiracy theory that additional ballots were "beamed into" the tabulation machines via the internet.  On the issue of delivering its routers, the board made it very clear that that is a request simply out of bounds and provided the reasons why:

"The Board of Supervisors will not produce its routers.  Maricopa County repeatedly has addressed the significant risks posed by producing its routers.  Specifically, providing these routers puts sensitive, confidential data belonged to Maricopa County citizens-- including SSN's and protected health information-- at risk.  Further the Maricopa County Sheriff has explained that the production of the routers would render internal law enforcement communication infrastructure extremely vulnerable to hacked, be they criminal cartels, terrorists or foreign powers.  

We understand the Senate's interest in examining the routers relates to determining whether the tabulation equipment [was] connected to the internet at any point during the November 2020 election.  IT [WAS] NOT.  No routers have ever been connected to the tablulation equipment of the Election Management System.  Two EAC-accredited professional elections technology companies have confirmed that fact.  These audits confirmed Maricopa County uses an air-gapped system in its tabulation room, meaning the ballot counting equipment is never connected to the internet and is completely separated from the Maricopa County network. The audits also confirmed there are no routers connected to the tabulation system and there never have been."

From the strongly-worded, somewhat sarcastic, letter by Maricopa Board Chairman Jack Sellers:

"It is now August 0f 2021.  The election of November 2020 is over.  If you haven't figured out that the election in Maricopa County was free, fair and accurate yet, I'm not sure you ever will.  The reason you haven't finished your "audit" is because you hired people who have no experience and little understanding of how professional elections are run.

The Board has real work to do and little time to entertain this adventure in never-never land.  Please finish whatever it is that you are doing and release whatever it is your are going to release."

The Associated Press has outlined how laughable the whole process has now become.  In the last week alone, the only audit leader with substantial election experience was locked out of the building, went on the radio to say he was quitting, then reversed course hours later.  The audit review's Twitter accounts were suspended for breaking the rules. Another Republican, Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, one of the Legislature's strongest advocates for stricter voting laws, agreed that “the Trump audit” was “botched.” A majority of the GOP-controlled Senate, which commissioned the audit, is now against it. Doug Logan, owner of Cyber Ninjas, ended months of silence about who was paying him when he said a whopping $5.7 million had been contributed by political groups run by prominent Trump supporters including Michael Flynn, Sidney Powell, Patrick Byrne and correspondents from One America News Network. The figure dwarfs the $150,000 to be paid by the Senate. 

This latest admission from Cyber Ninjas reveals that the fraudit is not just a product of local extremists, it has been fed by sophisticated, well-funded national organizations whose boards of directors include some of the country’s wealthiest and highest-profile conservatives. Dark-money organizations, sustained by undisclosed donors, have relentlessly promoted the myth that American elections are rife with fraud, and, according to leaked records of their internal deliberations, they have drafted, supported, and in some cases taken credit for state laws that make it harder to vote.