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Post by the Scribe on Apr 24, 2021 0:30:08 GMT
So thousands of boxes of 2020 election ballots are sitting in Veteran's Memorial Coliseum UNGUARDED waiting to be counted by A BUNCH OF CYBER NINJA CLOWNS FROM FLORIDA! The GOP has LOST ITS COLLECTIVE MIND. They are FREAKS. They need to be VOTED OUT OF OFFICE ASAP. But they probably wouldn't believe the results of that election either. How hard is it to believe the WORST PRESIDENT IN US HISTORY WAS VOTED OUT OF OFFICE??? On top of that there are 12 million MORE registered Democrats than RepubliCons AND the majority of Independent voters VOTE DEMOCRATIC. DO THE MATH.Arizona judge suspends Republican vote 'audit' being conducted by Cyber Ninjas, a Florida company led by a pro-Trump conspiracy theoristnews.yahoo.com/arizona-judge-suspends-republican-vote-220947053.html
Fri, April 23, 2021, 3:09 PM·5 min read
Officials unload election equipment into the Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the state fairgrounds, Wednesday, April 21, 2021, in Phoenix. Maricopa County officials began delivering equipment used in the November election won by President Joe Biden on Wednesday and will move 2.1 million ballots to the site Thursday so Republicans in the state Senate who have expressed uncertainty that Biden's victory was legitimate can recount them and audit the results. AP Photo/Matt York
A state judge has halted a GOP effort to audit the vote in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Democrats sued to prevent the audit, noting it is led by a man who promoted pro-Trump conspiracy theories.
The pause will last until Monday, when the court will hear further arguments.
See more stories on Insider's business page.
An Arizona judge has suspended work over the weekend on a Republican-led effort to examine ballots from the 2020 election.
Arizona Democrats had filed a lawsuit on Thursday seeking to halt an audit, dismissing it as a partisan effort to validate false claims of election fraud.
azdem.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/2021-04-22-ADP-v.-Fann-Complaint-for-Declaratory-Judgment-00545433xC217C.pdf
On Friday, Judge Christopher Coury of the Maricopa County Superior Court granted their request for a pause until evidence can be presented at an 11:00 a.m. local time hearing on Monday.
The audit, which began Thursday, is being conducted by a Florida-based firm, Cyber Ninjas, that has never previously audited an election; the company's founder, Doug Logan, also embraced pro-Trump conspiracy theories about voter fraud on his since-deleted Twitter account, the Mirror reported.
www.azmirror.com/2021/03/31/arizona-senate-hires-a-stop-the-steal-advocate-to-lead-2020-election-audit/
Friday's order requires the company to hand over any documents detailing their internal procedures for the audit, "which should have been made immediately available to the public if this were a transparent or credible process," Raquel Terán, chair of the Arizona Democratic Party, said in a statement.
Karen Fann, a Republican and president of Arizona's state Senate, selected the company to conduct the examination in Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, which President Joe Biden won by more than 45,000 votes.
In a letter on Friday, Katie Hobbs, Arizona's Democratic Secretary of State, called for a state investigation into the audit, expressing concern that ballots and election equipment had been handed over to a biased third party, "resulting in unauthorized and unmonitored access to both."
A reporter from the Arizona Republic, Jen Fifeld, who attended the audit on Friday raised concerns that those examining the ballots could be in a position to alter them, noting that counting tables had blue pens on them. You are "supposed to only have red ink," she noted, because the machines that count ballots will accept black or blue ink as a legitimate vote.
www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2021/04/23/maricopa-county-election-audit-arizona-senate-ordered-recount-2020-presidential-senate-elections/7352274002/
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, has however declined to intervene. In a letter sent Friday, he rejected Hobbs' call for an investigation by his office, saying that her citation of media reports suggesting impropriety "does not meet the standard of a credible allegation."
Fann, for her part, did not respond to a request for comment.
The loser of the 2020 election, former President Donald Trump, has backed the state Senate's effort to reexamine the results in Maricopa County, which he won in 2016. In a statement on Friday, he accused Democrats of resorting to lawyers in an effort to have their supposed election fraud in the GOP-run county "concealed"; he also alleged that the state's Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, a former ally, was inexplicably collaborating with his political foes.
But the former president's claims of fraud - vague and ever-shifting - were all debunked months ago, including by members of his own party. Last fall, the Trump campaign promoted a conspiracy theory, known as "SharpieGate," that alleged ballots from Republicans were being invalidated. Poll workers, the story went, had handed in-person voters permanent markers, instead of pens, knowing that these voters would lean GOP and that the writing utensil would spoil their ballots.
www.businessinsider.com/arizona-sharpiegate-conspiracy-theory-debunked-by-election-officials-2020-11?utm_source=yahoo.com&utm_medium=referral
In fact, as both federal officials and Arizona's Republican Attorney General noted at the time, permanent markers were the preferred tool for completing one's ballot. And references in the state's online database to some residents having their votes "canceled," which had been cited as a smoking gun, referred only to those who had voted in person after having requested a mail-in ballots: It was the unused mail-in ballot that was canceled, not the one filled out the day of the election with a Sharpie, illustrating that it was not possible to engage in election fraud by voting twice.
Allies of the former president also promoted the unsubstantiated theory, among others, that Biden received thousands of mail-in ballots from fictitious voters. That claim was rejected by local Republicans who voted to certify the election results in Arizona's most populous county.
"In a free democracy, elections result in some people's candidates losing," Board of Supervisors President Clint Hickman, a Republican, said at the time. Hickman said he was disappointed that Trump lost but that there was no evidence to suggest the vote was inaccurate, much less any that would justify negating the outcome.
apnews.com/article/joe-biden-donald-trump-arizona-phoenix-lawsuits-5642a850384031d162351f4e3983da85
"I'm not going to violate the law or deviate from my own moral compass," Hickman said, "as some have pushed me to do."
Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com
Read the original article on Business Insider
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 26, 2021 10:25:56 GMT
Sketchy Pro-Trump Recount Off To Rocky Start In Arizona | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC
786,509 views•Apr 23, 2021
MSNBC
4.29M subscribers
Jen Fifield, reporter for the Arizona Republic, talks with Rachel Maddow about the loose security and poor attention to detail on the first day of a recount of 2020 election ballots in Maricopa County, Arizona being conducted by a pro-Trump conspiracy theorist at the behest of the state's Republican senate and at the expense of Arizona taxpayers. Aired on 04/24/2021.
» Subscribe to MSNBC: on.msnbc.com/SubscribeTomsnbc |
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 27, 2021 13:29:59 GMT
I wonder who is paying for this CONservative charade? Oh wait, I am! And can we guess how this is going to end? A flip to Trump of course.
Firm recounting Arizona ballots wants methods kept secretwww.yahoo.com/news/firm-recounting-arizona-ballots-wants-164149592.html Election 2020 Arizona Audit
Cyber Ninjas owner Doug Logan, a Florida-based consultancy, talks about overseeing a 2020 election ballot audit ordered by the Republican lead Arizona Senate at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, during a news conference Thursday, April 22, 2021, in Phoenix. The equipment used in the November election won by President Joe Biden and the 2.1 million ballots were moved to the site Thursday so Republicans in the state Senate who have expressed uncertainty that Biden's victory was legitimate can recount them and audit the results. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
BOB CHRISTIE
Mon, April 26, 2021, 9:41 AM
PHOENIX (AP) — A contractor hired by Arizona's state Senate to oversee the recount of 2.1 million ballots in the county that includes the metro Phoenix area wants a judge to keep secret its methods for ensuring ballot privacy.
The request came in advance of a hearing Tuesday where a judge planned to review policies and procedures for ensuring voter privacy and ballot secrecy that the Senate and contractor Cyber Ninjas are using in the Maricopa County recount of November ballots.
Florida-based Cyber Ninjas filed the policies under seal Sunday and asked Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Coury to keep them sealed as trade secrets and because the Senate is immune to legal actions as a separate branch of government. The company also wants the hearing closed to the media and the public.
The hearing was cancelled after the Cyber Ninjas filing prompted Coury to recuse himself from the case because the company added an attorney to its team who previously worked as Coury's intern. Another judge was appointed to hear the case and set a hearing for Tuesday.
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The Arizona Democratic Party and the lone Democrat on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors sued the Senate and Cyber Ninjas last Thursday. They wanted the recount of the 2020 presidential election won by President Joe Biden halted unless they were given guarantees that voter privacy and ballot secrecy would be ensured.
Judge Coury ordered the company to follow ballot and voter secrecy laws and demanded they turn over written procedures and training manuals before the hearing on the Democrats’ request. He offered to pause the count over the weekend if Democrats posted a $1 million bond to cover added expenses, but the party declined.
The Arizona First Amendment Coalition, a press freedom group whose members include Arizona print and broadcast news outlets, filed a motion Monday opposing Cyber Ninjas' sealing and courtroom closure request.
In the filing, coalition attorney Dan Barr wrote that “the public, and especially the 2.1 million voters whose election ballots and personal information are in the hands of an out-of-state, openly partisan private company, deserve to know what is being filed with the court and what is happening in the courtroom.”
In its filing seeking a sealing order, attorneys for Cyber Ninjas, said making the policies public could disturb the audit.
“It is no secret that this audit is an emotional issue and there exists a subset of individuals that might utilize such materials as a roadmap to breach the audit's security ...” the filing said.
Cyber Ninjas started the weeks-long recount effort Friday, but it is doing so with little transparency and refuses to allow media or the public to watch the recount being held at the state fairgrounds in Phoenix. Only observers who have had their backgrounds checked by the company are allowed in.
The audit has already been beset by amateur mistakes that critics view as evidence the auditors are not up to the task. Hand counters began the day using blue pens, which are banned in ballot counting rooms because they can be read by ballot machines. For days leading up to the audit, a crew from a group of Phoenix television stations, azfamily, had unfettered access to the supposedly secure facility as auditors were setting up equipment and receiving ballots and counting machines.
The Florida-based consultancy has no election experience and is run by Doug Logan, who has shared unfounded conspiracy theories claiming the official 2020 presidential election results are illegitimate.
Maricopa County conducted numerous pre- and post-election reviews to check the accuracy of voting machines, including a hand count of a representative sample of ballots as required by state law.
County officials also hired two auditing firms that reported no malicious software or incorrect counting equipment and concluded that none of the computers or equipment were connected to the internet.
A series of lawsuits filed by backer of former President Donald Trump challenging Maricopa County's election results were all thrown out as being meritless.
The Senate audit can't overturn the results of the election, but Republicans who control the state Senate say it is needed to restore voter confidence and help them craft changes to state election laws. Senate Democrats call the audit an effort to perpetuate “The Big Lie,” which is what they call Trump's insistence that he only lost the election because of election fraud.
Biden won Arizona last year by nearly 10,500 votes and won in Maricopa County, the state's most populous, by just over 45,100 votes.
— Associated Press reporter Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed.
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Post by the Scribe on Apr 29, 2021 10:33:36 GMT
Democrats fight 'sham audit' in Arizona, saying Republicans aim to justify voter suppressionwww.yahoo.com/news/democrats-fight-sham-audit-arizona-023030502.html
Charles Davis
Mon, April 26, 2021, 7:30 PM
Charles Davis
Mon, April 26, 2021, 7:30 PM
AP21115681777352
Cyber Ninjas owner Doug Logan, left, a Florida-based consultancy, talks about overseeing a 2020 election ballot audit ordered by the Republican lead Arizona Senate at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, as a Cyber Ninjas IT technician demonstrates a ballot scan during a news conference Thursday, April 22, 2021, in Phoenix. The equipment used in the November election won by President Joe Biden and the 2.1 million ballots were moved to the site Thursday so Republicans in the state Senate who have expressed uncertainty that Biden's victory was legitimate can recount them and audit the results. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin
More
A GOP-led audit of the 2020 vote in Maricopa County is "fomenting the big lie that the election was stolen," the head of the Arizona Democratic Party told Insider.
Republicans selected a firm to conduct the audit, Cyber Ninjas, that has no experiencing counting votes.
The company is led by a man who promoted false claims of election fraud in 2020.
See more stories on Insider's business page.
It's a "sham audit," Raquel Terán, a state lawmaker and chair of the Arizona Democratic Party, says of the vote count underway this week in Maricopa County. Initiated by Republicans and led by a firm that has no prior experience handling ballots, the $150,000 in taxpayer is being used to perpetrate a fraud, she told Insider - "fomenting the big lie that the election was stolen."
Last week, an Arizona judge agreed that there was something to Democrats' arguments, ruling that Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based company selected to lead a reexamination of the vote in Maricopa County, should hand over any documents describing its internal processes. Democrats also had a chance to suspend the process altogether, albeit at a cost: $1 million bond.
The problem, Terán said, is they did not have the money.
"It was beyond absurd for us that the bond was set so high," Terán said. And Democrats had no confidence that Cyber Ninjas would come back with a fair and accurate reporting of the financial damages incurred by the order; ultimately, she said, the party decided it did not have a million dollars to lose.
Cyber Ninjas, meanwhile, decided it also did not want to lose its purported trade secrets: documents detailing how it plans to ensure the credibility of its audit process. It filed those documents with the court on Sunday, requesting that they be kept under seal and away from the prying eyes of the media.
The company also asked the judge who had ordered them to hand over documents to recuse himself, appearing to manufacture a conflict of interest over the weekend by hiring one of his former interns to join their legal team. A new judge, on Tuesday, will consider Democrats' push to unseal those internal communications detailing security procedures and how it purports to know the difference between a valid and invalid ballot.
Cyber Ninjas did not respond to a voicemail requesting comment. But, Terán said, "it doesn't seem like a coincidence to us."
The Arizona GOP, for its part, has crowed over Democrats' inability to come up the money to stop the audit. "We are restoring faith in our country and our elections," the party states in a fundraising appeal.
A dubious process
From the start, Democrats and impartial observers alike have cried foul over Arizona's selective audit of Maricopa County, which President Joe Biden last year won by more than 45,000 votes.
Last fall, the former president and his allies spread a host of quickly debunked claims of fraud in the county, which Donald Trump won in 2016. Perhaps the one that went most viral was "SharpieGate," which alleged that Republicans in Maricopa County were being handed permanent markers at their polling stations, invalidating their ballots. In fact, permanent markers were the preferred writing utensil, as local Republicans confirmed at the time.
Another claim is that Democrats simply flooded the county with "fake" ballots. No evidence was ever presented - it was the same argument that Trump put forward after 2016 to justify his loss in the popular vote - and Maricopa County's Republican elections officials unanimously voted to certify Biden's win. ("In a free democracy, elections result in some people's candidates losing," one of them said at the time.)
But the claims of a stolen election persist, and Arizona Republicans are intent on placating the sentiment. Weeks after the January 6 insurrection, the state GOP won a legal battle over Maricopa County's ballots, earning the right to check them again. State Sen. Karen Fann, the Republican president of Arizona's state senate, then elected to outsource the process.
Enter Cyber Ninjas. It was not selected because of its experience auditing elections; it has none. What it does have is credibility - with Trump supporters. Doug Logan, the head of the company, is not impartial. As evidenced by a since-deleted Twitter account, he was convinced that the 2020 election was stolen long before he or his company ever examined a ballot, using his social media presence to promote the former president's "#StopTheSteal" effort, the Arizona Mirror reported. (A former Arizona Secretary of State, Republican Ken Bennett, has been named the state Senate's "liaison.")
At the convention center in Phoenix, Logan has had temp workers and volunteers pour over some 2.1 million ballots using "ultra-violet lights to search for ballot watermarks and weed-out phony ballots," according to One America News, the far-right media organization that was granted the exclusive right to stream the process.
Legitimate reporters, meanwhile, have complained of impeded access - and the potential for fraud in a process ostensibly intended to thwart it. Last Friday, a reporter at the Arizona Republic, Jen Fifield, noted the presence of blue pens inside the convention center that could be used to mark ballots and alter their reading in vote-processing machines; red pens - not any with dark ink - are the standard for auditors. She has not been allowed inside since.
Voting rights groups, including The Carter Center and the Brennan Center for Justice, have also decried what they see as a faux-audit in Arizona. In a letter to Sen. Fann, they accused Republicans of being "driven by politics rather than a search for the truth." The Maricopa County results have already been audited, they noted: last year, by credible firms that have audited elections before. Another round, by a dubious firm, "will have little value other than to stoke conspiracy theories and partisan gamesmanship - or worse."
Fann did not respond to Insider's requests for comment.
For Arizona Democrats, the worst fear is not Republicans believing falsehoods about the 2020 election. "There are no amount of audits that are going to appease any of these individuals who believe in conspiracy theories," Terán told Insider.
Rather, she said, it's what those falsehoods could do to Democratic voters, in the form of new laws passed in the wake of whatever the Cyber Ninjas find when they are through searching next month. New ID requirements, for example, and efforts to remove people from mail-in ballot rolls if they either don't vote or vote in person for two election cycles - all different means of what Terán terms "voter suppression."
Have a news tip? Email this reporter: cdavis@insider.com
Read the original article on Business Insider
Fact check: Dominion attorneys did not try to stop Arizona ballot audit
www.yahoo.com/news/fact-check-dominion-attorneys-did-193207512.html
McKenzie Sadeghi, USA TODAY
Tue, April 27, 2021, 12:32 PM
The claim: Dominion Voting Systems had 70 attorneys in Arizona trying to stop audit of 2020 ballots
Baseless voter fraud claims targeting Dominion Voting Systems resurfaced on social media after a group of Republicans in the Arizona Senate ordered an election audit of 2020 ballots from the state's largest county.
Republican legislators say the audit will address concerns raised by their constituents about the presidential election. However, election consultants say the audit results will be inaccurate and ruin the public's confidence in the U.S. election system.
As the unofficial hand recount of nearly 2.1 million ballots took place in Maricopa County, one user took to Facebook to claim a group of 70 lawyers representing Dominion attempted to stop the audit.
False allegations surrounding Dominion, a private company supplying voting systems in 28 states, are far from new. Dominion became the target of debunked conspiracy theories that the company rigged the election and stole votes from former President Donald Trump during the 2020 presidential election.
Dominion filed defamation lawsuits against prominent Trump allies, including Fox News, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, attorney Sidney Powell and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani for spreading the falsehoods without evidence.
"Dominion had 70 attorneys in Arizona today trying to stop the audit," reads an April 21 post with over 2,000 shares and 100 reactions. "If it was honest why would you care?" The text is displayed over an image of a fictional character.
USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user for comment.
Fact check: What's true about the 2020 election, vote counting, Electoral College
Dominion confirms claim is false
A Dominion spokesperson confirmed to USA TODAY that it does not have a 70-person team of lawyers trying to stop the audit in Arizona.
"This claim is false. There is no seventy-person team of lawyers representing Dominion in Arizona." the spokesperson said in an emailed statement, adding that Dominion "has taken no legal action to stop the audit."
"Nevertheless, the company has made it clear that publicly available information on the firms chosen to conduct the audit show they are beyond biased and do not have any experience with elections-related work,” the spokesperson said.
The head firm hired by the Arizona Senate to oversee the recount is Cyber Ninjas, whose founder has previously used social media to promote baseless election fraud claims. Other firms on the audit team include CyFIR LLC, Digital Discovery and Wake Technology Services Inc.
Get these in your inbox: We're fact-checking the news and sending it to your inbox. Sign up here to start receiving our newsletter.
Reports from local news outlets, which had reporters who signed up as volunteers to get access to the recount, make no mention of Dominion attorneys showing up to stop the audit, and the user provided no evidence to support the allegation.
Dominion notes on its site that "a thousand independent audits and recounts since Election Day in November 2020 have demonstrated the accuracy and reliability of Dominion systems."
Additionally, previous 2020 election audits conducted by Maricopa County and two independent firms found no issues with accuracy, source codes, equipment, software, and network and internet connectivity.
There are concerns about the audit regarding details on who is involved, who is paying and a lack of clear procedure and safeguards. The process started last week and a report will be issued in about 60 days, according to a March 31 press release from Arizona Senate Republicans.
USA TODAY has previously debunked false claims surrounding Dominion and voting in Arizona, finding the election was conducted fairly and the votes were counted accurately.
Fact check: Judge did not rule Dominion Voting Systems machines engineered to yield fraud
Our rating: False
The claim that Dominion had 70 lawyers in Arizona trying to stop the audit of 2020 election ballots is FALSE, based on our research. A spokesperson for Dominion confirmed it has taken no legal action to stop the audit and did not have a team of attorneys in Arizona. The audit, by a firm with a questionable reputation, is an effort by Arizona Senate Republicans to challenge the 2020 election results in Maricopa County. Previous independent audits found no evidence of widespread voter fraud.
Our fact-check sources:
Lead Stories, April 23, "Fact Check: Dominion Did NOT Have 70 Attorneys In Arizona Trying To Stop The Audit"
Dominion Voting Systems, April 25, statement to USA TODAY
Arizona Republic, April 24, "Arizona election audit: Here's what you're seeing on the video feeds as counting continues Saturday"
AZ Mirror, April 23, "Senate won't say who is funding the election audit or allow media access"
USA TODAY, Jan. 14, "Fact check: Dominion Voting machines create ballots only for audits, testing"
USA TODAY, Nov. 4, "Fact check: Arizona election departments confirm Sharpies can be used on ballots"
Dominion, April 25, "DOMINION IN ARIZONA"
Maricopa County, Arizona, November 2020, HAND COUNT/AUDIT REPORT
Maricopa.gov, accessed April 23, Audit Overview
AZCentral, April 26, "All observer shifts full for now as Arizona election audit continues Monday"
Arizona Senate Republicans, March 31, tweet
Thank you for supporting our journalism. You can subscribe to our print edition, ad-free app or electronic newspaper replica here.
Our fact check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fact check: Dominion lawyers did not try to stop Arizona ballot audit
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Post by the Scribe on May 2, 2021 12:27:03 GMT
RepubliCONservatives ought to be banned from running for office. They are insane people. Dangerous.
Arizona Secretary Of State On The GOP Audit: It Is ‘Designed To Continue Promoting The Big Lie’
MSNBC
4.31M subscribers
Arizona Secretary of States Katie Hobbs sounds the alarm on the GOP audit of votes in Maricopa County and says she’s heard concerns from many of her constituents about the qualifications of the auditors.
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Post by the Scribe on May 2, 2021 13:07:47 GMT
The only people who want to go through 4 more years of Trump are the criminally insane tea partiers which control the GOP now. If our rigged for the minority system hands one more election to the MINORITY once more so soon there will be hell to pay.HuffPost Trump Hints At Mar-A-Lago That Biased Arizona Recount Could Be Road To White Housewww.yahoo.com/huffpost/trump-mar-a-lago-arizona-recount-white-house-035847717.html
Mary Papenfuss·Trends Reporter, HuffPost
Sat, May 1, 2021, 8:58 PM
Donald Trump hinted to cheering Mar-a-Lago guests that the disturbing Arizona ballot audit by a partisan private company could lead to his White House reinstatement.
“Let’s see what they find,” Trump said in remarks captured on video at his Florida golf resort.
“Some very interesting things are happening in Arizona,” he noted in the footage that appeared to be taken Wednesday during his farewell remarks before he heads to New Jersey for the summer. It was posted on TikTok by 45covfefe.
@45covfefe
♬ America The Beautiful - Whitney Houston
“Let’s see what they find. I wouldn’t be surprised if they found thousands and thousands and thousands of votes” for him, Trump added.
“After that we’ll watch Pennsylvania, and you watch Georgia, then you’re going to watch Michigan and Wisconsin, and you’re watching New Hampshire. They found a lot of votes up in New Hampshire just now ... you saw that?” he added, though it was unclear what Trump was referring to.
“This was a rigged election, everybody knows it, and we’re going to be watching it very closely,” he concluded.
There’s absolutely no evidence it was a rigged election.
The current controversial audit of 2.1 million Maricopa County votes for president and Senate — races won by Democrats — is being headed up by the Cyber Ninjas company, which is owned by a promoter of the “Stop the Steal” lie that the election was rigged against Trump. Owner Doug Logan retweeted messages months ago that an audit of the Arizona would find hundreds of thousands of votes for Trump. The Florida-based Cyber Ninjas company has no experience with elections or ballots.
The firm, hired by Arizona’s GOP Senate, failed in court to keep its recount operation secret. Voter and civil rights organizations are so alarmed that they’ve written to the Justice Department for federal monitors out of fear that ballots will be damaged, stolen, altered or lost.
Trump asks “multiple times a day” for an update on the operation, The Washington Post reported Thursday. He’s particularly entranced by Cyber Ninjas’ examination of the ballots with ultraviolet light, which some experts believe could damage them, according to the Post. It’s not known why Cyber Ninjas is using UV Light.
In the latest alarming development, an Arizona Republic reporter on Friday snapped a photo of U.S. Capitol rally agitator and former Arizona Rep. Anthony Kern (R) reviewing ballots as part of the audit.
Kern’s own name appears on the ballots he was reviewing. He lost a contest for re-election, coming in dead last in a a three-way race. Kern is also listed as a presidential elector for Donald Trump on the ballot, according to the Republic.
He’s also a disciple of the “Big Lie,” and was photographed on the steps of the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection.
More than 40 Democrats in the Arizona state Legislature called on the Justice Department to investigate Kern after the Capitol siege. His “own social media posts strongly suggest” that Kern was “present at the riot in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, and actively encouraged the mob, both before and during the attack on the Capitol,” said the letter to the DOJ.
Arizona Republic reporter Ryan Randazzo was ejected from the recount operation at the Veterans Memorial Coliseumat after he took Kern’s photo. He noted that boxes of ballots appeared to be shuffled around, and votes examined, with no obvious pattern of organization.
Critics have slammed the operation as a Trump rally, and in no way a reputable audit of anything.
The audit findings will have no effect on President Joe Biden’s victory in the state by a 0.3-point margin, which has long been officially certified. But claims of new votes for Trump could undermine faith in a legitimate election and lead to further unrest.
www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/watch/former-republican-az-attorney-general-on-gop-audit-the-whole-thing-is-a-sham-111174725617
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