Arizona was a major target of former President Donald Trump's lies attacking the validity of the 2020 election, and though he's been out of office for months, Arizona state Republicans' are still eagerly working to vindicate Trump's absurd claims.
This is most apparent in the partisan audit of Maricopa County, Arizona's ballots—an audit that was forced by Republican state senators and coordinated by Cyber Ninjas, a firm with no elections experience, whose founder posted bizarre conspiracy theories that the election was stolen. This was despite the ballots already having been recounted and audited multiple times.
Though its Republican defenders claim the audit is only after the truth, it's primarily funded by conservative election conspiracy groups—a fact that state Senators backing the audit have tried to obscure from the public.
These are far from the only dents in the audit's credibility. Auditors have reported scouring ballots for bamboo fibers in response to a pro-Trump conspiracy theory that ballots were flown in from Asia. The team's incompetence will require millions of dollars to replace compromised voting equipment.
Maricopa County's all-Republican Board of Supervisors has grown increasingly irritated at the audit's length and absurdity, with Supervisor Bill Gates saying, "enough is enough!" That was all the way back in May.
Now, the Board of Supervisor's chairman—Jack Sellers—has had enough as well.
Sellers wrote a blistering letter to the state Senators backing the audit, informing them he wouldn't be complying with their latest batch of subpoenas.
Sellers wrote:
"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 you are going to release. ... There was no fraud, there wasn't an injection of ballots from Asia nor was there a satellite that beamed votes into our election equipment. It's time for all elected officials to tell the truth and stop encouraging conspiracies."
The letter concluded with a warning:
"Release your report and be prepared to defend any accusations of misdeeds in court. It's time to move on."
People applauded Sellers' letter.
But conservatives, thirsty for any validation of the election delusions spewed by the former President, were enraged at Sellers' refusal.
Sadly, the disinformation and recklessness plaguing the Maricopa County audit may be repackaged for other swing states Trump lost, such as Pennsylvania and Georgia.
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