Sunday, May 16, 2021

AZ 2020 Election Audit: A Farcical Gimmick and Another Trump Con 100%

 

Blue: Auditors?? Orange: Observers??
(Who knows for sure)

Reporting for Duty to the GOP-run Senate

Pre-Audit and Pre-January 6 Insurrection
(Rudy Gee's final report)

Another Update (May 20) from the AZ GOP la-la land post-2020 election audit:

NBC News carried this headline:

Maricopa County will need new voting machines after GOP's audit, Arizona secretary of state says

The machines must be replaced because election officials don't know what was done to them by the Republican auditors (Cyber Ninjas) says state SOS.

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D-AZ) now says that the voting machines Republicans turned over to private companies as part of their audit of the 2020 election are no longer safe for use in future elections. In a letter sent to Maricopa County officials and shared with NBC News, Hobbs cited security concerns about losing the chain of custody over the equipment when it was handed over to the auditors and urged the county to get new machines.

If it does not, her office would consider decertifying the equipment involved in the audit, she wrote. That would remove the machines from service. 

AZ State Senate Republicans subpoenaed nearly 400 of Maricopa County's election machines, along with ballots cast by voters in 2020 November election, to facilitate an unusual audit of the election results. 

The GOP hired private firms, led by the Florida-based cybersecurity company Cyber Ninjas, to do the work – who has zero experience in such audit matters.

Replacing the machines, as Hobbs would need to replace the tainted ones, would cost millions and AZ taxpayers would have to foot the bill. The most-recent expense for election equipment was a $6.1 million contract purchased in 2019. 

Now, guess who has a voting machine trademark if AZ buys them and the seller agrees on price? Yep, Ivanka Trump-Kushner who got a copyrighted trademark with China in 2018 for her name-brand for 16 items including voting machines and other items.

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Previous update from AZ directly related the following story just came right after I made the post (sorry for the delay, but it's an important piece of this AZ audit story).

Original Post from Here:

The 2020 election was fair but not according to Trump and his followers vis-à-vis the Arizona on-going audit by “Cyber Ninjas” – a phony bogus job where the funding is highly suspect and so are the donors and results to date and audit group that even their home state of FL doesn’t know anything about them. Wow. Fair, Open, Secure Process, um??? Trustworthy, right (LOL LOL LOL).

This outstanding rundown from CNN tells the odd story – but not unexpected from the Trump conspiracy nuts with this headline:

“Arizona audit funding cloaked in secrecy”

The GOP-controlled Arizona Senate allocated $150,000 to the audit, one third paid up front. But that money was expected to cover just a fraction of the work. Now, as state officials project that the audit will continue into the summer, with just 500,000 of the 2.1 million ballots hand-counted to date, the costs keep climbing.

Ken Bennett, the Senate's audit liaison, and others have welcomed private donations. Trump supporters and conspiracy theorists have jumped in, publicly stumping for funds and claiming to have funneled more than $1.6 million to the audit, while offering scant information about where that money is flowing.

The people ostensibly fundraising for the audit and who are saying they've made contributions include, at a minimum:

The America Project, a non-profit run by Overstock founder Patrick Byrne, who met with Trump in the Oval Office in December to discuss tactics for overturning the election results, according to The Washington Post. The America Project claims on its fundraising website to have raised $1.6 million, with a goal of $2.8 million, for the audit. At a press conference on April 28, Bennett called on people to donate to the audit through the America Project's website. Neither Byrne nor the America Project responded to repeated requests for interviews by CNN, nor to questions about whether it has forwarded donations and to whom. 

Voices and Votes, a website established by One America News (OAN) personality Christina Bobb, who said on Twitter April 15 that she'd received two pledges totaling $150,000 to support the audit. Charles Herring, president of OAN's parent company, told CNN that OAN hasn't contributed to Voices and Votes and isn't soliciting or receiving contributions, adding: “We are aware of efforts by staff members to raise funds for numerous causes from the Girl Scouts to audits,” he said in an email. Neither Bobb nor Voices and Votes responded to CNN queries about whether it has forwarded donations for the audit, how much or to whom.

L. Lin Wood, who, along with attorney Sidney Powell, filed numerous failed lawsuits on behalf of Trump baselessly claiming fraud in the 2020 election. In an April 7 post on Telegram, Wood said a nonprofit he leads was donating $50,000 to Bobb's Voices and Votes group for the audit. Wood didn't respond to CNN requests for an interview. 

Mike Lindell, the MyPillow founder and a leading proponent of debunked election conspiracy theories. Lindell, in a phone interview, declined to say whether he's contributed to the Arizona audit, and said he hasn't been in touch with Cyber Ninjas or its CEO, Doug Logan. But asked if he's encouraged others to donate to the audit, he said: “One hundred percent, one thousand percent. I've done events where I spoke via Zoom and stuff, so yeah. I've been very much promoting.”

Serious doubts about transparency:

The GOP-run AZ Senate's purpose they say for relying on private funding for the audit is “to save taxpayer money, not hide where the funding came from, but you and others may assume different and that funding don't affect the work of the audit.”

Dems say:  The Senate has bypassed the transparency requirement in the state's public finance law, ARS Sec. 35-149, which requires it publicly identify the sources of money being used on government-sponsored projects. The spirit of the statute is being violated.

The statute is about transparency and making sure that just what is happening right now doesn't happen... when the money isn't actually received by the government entity, but everyone knows, wink, wink, nudge, nudge, we're going to give it to Cyber Ninjas to get the work done.

Even before the audit began, critics questioned the choice of Cyber Ninjas, whose CEO, Doug Logan, repeatedly tweeted in support of the Stop the Steal (January 6 battle cry).

He also claimed the election had been rigged against Trump. Arizona Democrats sued over whether voter information, machines and ballots were being adequately protected.

The news media sued to gain access to the audit, after initially being blocked from observing. Cyber Ninjas fought in court unsuccessfully to keep its audit processes secret.

Best summary is this from David Becker, a former voting-rights attorney at the U.S. DOJ and currently the Executive Director of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation & Research who says: “They are receiving money from opaque sources, and they are not disclosing that money. They can say it isn't coming to the Arizona Senate, but they're facilitating it; this would never have happened but for the Arizona Senate. It should be concerning that the Senate handed ballots over to an inexperienced out-of-state firm and then said them: fundraise off this, get as much money as you can.”

In an interview Wednesday (May 12), Bennett said that according to the AZ GOP Senate's stated purpose in relying on private funding for the audit is: “To save taxpayer money, not hide where the funding came from, but you and others may assume different that the sources of the funding don't affect the work of the audit.”

However, Bennet added that by taking itself out of the process of accepting the funds, the Senate has bypassed the transparency requirement in the state's public finance law, ARS Sec. 35-149, which requires it publicly identify the sources of money being used on government-sponsored projects.

My 2 cents: Boy, oh, boy does this all sound 100% Trumpian: A con that is corrupt, crooked, conniving, and callous as they come. Not much else

Trump and his partners in this crime – for it surely is a serious crime – may not be prosecuted, but the final result will be long term damage to the country and our guaranteed right to free, fair, and safe elections. 

Finally, Trump and his directed/managed/ordered tactics are incorrigible and so is he.

Thanks for stopping by.





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