Tag: GOP using Trump election fraud lie to try to overturn the 2020 election

Observers report ballots and laptop computers have been left unattended in Arizona recount, according to secretary of state

Washington Post logo

Ballots have been left unattended on counting tables.

Laptop computers sit abandoned, at times — open, unlocked and unmonitored.

Procedures are constantly shifting, with untrained workers using different rules to count ballots.

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) on Wednesday sent a letter outlining a string of problems that she said observers from her office have witnessed at a Republican-led recount of the 2020 presidential election results in Arizona’s largest county. Continue reading.

‘It should alarm every American’: GOP secretary of state rips her own party’s election ‘audit’ in Arizona

Raw Story Logo

On CNN Wednesday, Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, a moderate Republican, tore into the Arizona GOP’s ballot “audit” scheme in Maricopa County, and warned it would set a dangerous precedent for the integrity of elections.

“Madam Secretary, you see like flashing, you know, red warning signs and sirens here based on what’s happening in Arizona,” said anchor John Berman. “Why?”

“Well, because we’re witnessing an event that has absolutely unprecedented movement in elections,” said Wyman. “We’ve never seen a private company be able to come in and take command and control of live ballots that were used in an election, and the precedence of this is just unnerving for election officials across the country. And it should alarm every American in the country because we don’t want people to be able to just walk into a crime scene and contaminate evidence for a future trial. That’s what this is.” Continue reading.

Cindy McCain Slams Arizona Republicans For ‘Ludicrous’ Election Recount

Forbes Logo

TOPLINE

Prominent Arizona Republican Cindy McCain on Sunday disavowed an ongoing GOP-backed audit of the results of the 2020 election in her state (nearly six months after President Joe Biden’s win), joining a chorus of Democrats and voting rights groups criticizing the party’s persisting baseless allegations of voter fraud. 

  • Speaking during a Sunday morning interview with CNN’s “State of the Union,” McCain, the wife of late Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), blasted the effort shepherded by Arizona’s Republican-controlled state Senate as “ludicrous.” 
  • A prominent critic of former President Donald Trump, whose personal attacks on her late husband have sparked a publicly contentious relationship between the two, McCain described her state’s GOP as “aloof” and “crazy” for its continued attempts to appeal to scorned Trump voters.  Continue reading.

Republic reporter kicked out of Arizona audit site after tweet about former state lawmaker tallying votes

Arizona Republic Logo

An Arizona Republic reporter was escorted from the Arizona election audit site on Friday morning after posting a photo showing a former Republican legislator at a ballot-counting table.

The photo showed a ballot, with no markings discernible, on a vertical stand in front of former state Rep. Anthony Kern, R-Glendale.

The reporter, Ryan Randazzo, was told his press privileges were revoked. He left the building as requested. Continue reading.

Last-ditch attempt to undermine the presidential election came from another disturbing QAnon conspiracy

AlterNet Logo

The 2020 presidential election was over several months ago, but there is still an audit underway in Maricopa County, Ariz. — and it’s contributing to another full-blown conspiracy being perpetrated by QAnon believes.

According to The Daily Beast, audit watchers are now expressing concern about the presence of a man named Ron Watkins, an individual who is believed to have contributed to the birth of the whole QAnon conspiracy theory.

Although this recount should have no impact on the outcome of the presidential election since Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R), Arizona Secretary of State and the state’s Supreme Court chief justice have certified the results of the election, it has become a serious focal point for the conspiracy theorists that embraced former President Donald Trump’s claims about the election being stolen. Continue reading.

Judge has doubts on voter privacy in Arizona recount

PHOENIX (AP) — A judge hearing a challenge to voter privacy policies during the Republican-controlled Arizona Senate’s recount of 2.1 million 2020 election ballots in the county that includes metro Phoenix said Tuesday he is not convinced voter secrecy is being upheld. 

The comment from Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Daniel Martin came at the end of a lengthy hearing where he also declined to extend a previous judge’s order that auditors hired by the Senate comply with state voter privacy laws — at least until he hears more at a hearing on Wednesday.

“I will share with you all, I am not yet persuaded that there has been a showing that the rights of the voters in Maricopa County are being protected,” Martin said. “And I think we will touch on this tomorrow when we address the policies and procedures and whether or not they can be withheld from public view.” Continue reading.

Outfit Running Arizona ‘Election Audit’ Insists On Secrecy, Rejects Transparency

National Memo logo

The firm running an audit of election results in Arizona’s largest county is refusing to make public the procedures it is using in its review of more than 2 million ballots cast in the state in the 2020 election — even though a judge ordered it to do so because of concerns raised over the legality of its process.

Cyber Ninjas — which is run by a Donald Trump-supporting conspiracy theoristwho pushed lies about voter fraud in the 2020 election — said in a court filing on Sunday that it should not have to release its procedures, citing that they are “confidential” and subject to legislative privilege, the Arizona Republic reported.

A judge on Friday had ordered the firm, tapped by Republican state Senate President Karen Fann to oversee the audit, to release its procedures after concerns were raised by the media and Arizona’s secretary of state about whether it was following state election laws. Continue reading.