Earlier this year, Republicans in the Arizona state Senate forced yet another audit of more than two million Maricopa County ballots from the 2020 election.
Maricopa County was a substantial target of former President Donald Trump's lie that Democrats "stole" the election from him through widespread voter fraud.
There are growing concerns this latest audit is more about validating these lies to Republican voters, rather than ensuring so-called election integrity. Arizona Senate Republicans employed Cyber Ninjas—a firm with no elections experience whose owner has expressed support for Trump's election conspiracy theories—to oversee the auditing process.
The firm's initial efforts to keep the process from public scrutiny failed. Since then, it's increasingly apparent that auditors are using resources to search for nonexistent evidence of unhinged conspiracy theories. These have ranged from scouring ballots for bamboo fibers in case they were flown in from Asia, and accusing elections officials of feeding shredded ballots to chickens before incinerating the chickens to hide the evidence.
In a lengthy letter to Arizona Senate President Karen Fann this week, Maricopa County's majority-Republican Board of Supervisors warned that audit officials were miscounting ballots and displaying a lack of knowledge for how these audits even work.
And on Tuesday, the Maricopa County Board Supervisor Bill Gates—a Republican—excoriated the efforts behind the audit in a blistering press conference.
Watch below.
GOP Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates: "Now it's time to say: 'enough is enough.' It is time to push back on the big lie."pic.twitter.com/KVghtJGTjf— The Hill (@The Hill) 1621292388
After reiterating his confidence in the 2020 election results and Maricopa County's multiple verifications of the outcome, Gates said:
"Now, it's time to say 'Enough is enough.' It is time to push back on the Big Lie. We must do this. We must do this as a member of the Republican party, we must do this as a member of the Board of Supervisors, we need to do this as a country. Otherwise, we are not gonna be able to move forward and have an election in 2022 that we can all believe the results, whatever they may be."
Gates' rebuke of his party's delusions was widely shared online.
Enough is indeed enough.https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1394427459156811776\u00a0\u2026— Allan Mustard (@Allan Mustard) 1621343411
BOOM!https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1394427459156811776\u00a0\u2026— Myron Kelly (@Myron Kelly) 1621306649
Finally. Someone just says it plain.pic.twitter.com/QjbWmq5eMB— Todd Skivanoskable (@Todd Skivanoskable) 1621334348
It\u2019s about time. More #ConservativesNeedToSpeakTruthhttps://twitter.com/thehill/status/1394427459156811776\u00a0\u2026— Janel Fields, #ForThePeopleAct (@Janel Fields, #ForThePeopleAct) 1621337657
Thank you! Say it loud and clear....https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1394427459156811776\u00a0\u2026— Lucy Schimmel (@Lucy Schimmel) 1621313153
Enough is enough! This speech should have come sooner, glad they are standing up for what is right.https://twitter.com/thehill/status/1394427459156811776\u00a0\u2026— Phil Weinland (@Phil Weinland) 1621307343
He's far from the only one calling out the forced audit.
JUST IN: "Stop defaming my employees. Stop saying we broke the law without any evidence & stop besmirching all the hard work they have put in. "\n\nMaricopa County Recorder @stephen_richer-- a Republican-- calling BS on the "audit." Calls Trump "unhinged."pic.twitter.com/FuEKEKgICW— John Berman (@John Berman) 1621341233
Then call off the #fraudit in Maricopa County.https://twitter.com/FoxNews/status/1392085388420845568\u00a0\u2026— Darth "Watch This Space" Ramen (@Darth "Watch This Space" Ramen) 1620745612
The mostly Republican Maricopa County Board of Supervisors now needs to tell the rest of Arizona, and the country, that Trump lost. \n\nDenouncing the #fraudit only goes so far.— Fully Vax'd Coffee Creamer; Wear The Mask Anyway (@Fully Vax'd Coffee Creamer; Wear The Mask Anyway) 1621321858
Trump, who has made wildly false statements regarding the audit in recent weeks, has yet to respond.
