In the Spirit of Jefferson Davis (part twenty)

 

Part twenty.

 

 

 

September 23^rd through September 25^th, when the Arizona Audit results finally came out.

 

The results were leaked to a newspaper the day before they were officially presented to the State Senate, and there were minor differences between the leaked and absolute final version, but the most essential points were the same. Cyber Ninjas afformed that the recount tallies almost exactly the same as the November count, only 360 votes off (out of 2.1 million) and those extra votes went to Biden, not Trump. Cyber Ninjas had known this for almost two months, but had suppressed those findings until their much maligned “forensic” part of the Audit was completed.

 

As for the forensic part, the report concluded, “The paper ballots are the best evidence of voter intent and there is no reliable evidence that the paper ballots were altered to any material degree.”

 

Senate President Fann presented this to her Chamber in a Session where that the Democrats were not allowed to attend, and no public comment or questions were permitted, but the Gallery was overflowing with on-lookers. She tried to put a good face on it, considering she’d bet her political reputation on a lead zeppelin whose hot-air proved combustible.

 

“This has never been about overturning an election. This has never been about decertification.” She had said that many times over the previous eight months, but consistently behaved/hinted as if she believed otherwise. Cyber Ninjas had engaged in time-consuming, expensive, and illogical tests that were souly about establishing mythological fraud, not verifying the efficacy of procedures. And an Audit of only one county couldn’t be about reform, because it was too obviously partisan.

 

Fann said Biden had won. She needed to emphasize that, “That is a true statement," but added that she believed there were "broken statutes" and “flawed election procedures.” Fann claimed that thousands of votes could’ve been improperly counted or cast, and this was “why people questioned the ballots and the election,” that she would turn these issues over to the State AG Mark Brnovich to investigate.

 

But the “thousands of votes” claim contradicted the findings that the recount had affirmed Biden’s win and ballots had not been altered. Also, in the final report, but not the version leaked to the press, and not mentioned in Fann’s speech, a third of the ballots flagged as “problematic” were cast by registered Republicans.

 

Maricopa Country Officals responded with a series of tweets fact-checking what they were listening to:

 

“CLAIM: Election management database purged

 

“BOTTOM LINE: This is misleading. Nothing was purged. Cyber Ninjas don’t understand the business of elections. We can't keep everything on the EMS server because it has storage limits. We have data archival procedures for our elections and archived everything related to the November election on backup drives. So, everything still exists.

 

“EXPALANATION: The Election Management System (EMS) database does not store election information forever. That’s what archives are for. The Feb 2^nd activity referenced in the report was simply standard practice in the data archival process. The EMS server needed to be readied so our certified in the data archival process ... The Senate never subpoenaed our archives.

 

“CLAIM: Election files deleted.

 

“BOTTOM LINE: As stated above, servers have space limitations. Files are not deleted, they are archived...

 

“CLAIM: 293,139 corrupt ballot images on the country’s EMS server.

 

“BOTTOM LINE: This is inaccurate. The server isn’t the place to find all ballot images. We provided the hard drives that contain all the ballot images and conformed these images were not corrupted and could be opened.

 

“BACKGROUND: These claims of ‘deleting’ and ‘purging’ are reminiscent of the false claim Cyber Ninjas made in May, accusing Maricopa County of deleting an election server. The truth was, the Ninjas looked in the wrong place for the info. It was there all along. They just didn’t know how to correctly set up a RAID server. Despite falsely [accusing] us of a crime, Senator contractors have never issued a retraction or an apology.”

 

Twitter user Olviers Mum Katherine found that last part especially amusing, “A company named Cyber Ninjas did not know how to set up a RAID…??? This would be amusing laughable had it not contributed to election fraudit.”

 

“Fraudit” was an increasingly popular nickname for the Arizona Audit.

 

Sellers issued a statement. “These ‘auditors’ threw out wild, damaging, false claims in the middle of their audit and Senate leadership provided them the platform to present their opinions, suspicions, and faulty conclusions unquestioned and unchallenged,” and that “Today’s hearing was irresponsible and dangerous.”

 

Senior counsel at the Brennan Center for Justice, Elizabeth Heard, who was also a former Elections Administrator in Virginia, “If you actually read the report, they give themselves a million outs with these numbers … They’re desperately trying to suggest that what are routine procedures are suspicious, because they don’t have election administration experience or knowledge.”

 

An example of Cyber Ninjas poor investigative procedure: They claimed that more than 23,000 mail ballots were submitted by voters who moved before the election (Trump would refer to these people as “phantom voters.”) but even the report admitted there were “potential ways” that the ballots “would not violate the law.” Their methodology was to compare voter registration rolls to commercially available address validation tools, but admitted “some error is expected.”

 

More than some, according to Political Strategist and Professor of Election Law at American University in Washington D.C, Chris Sautter, said, “These commercial data companies have a long history of producing flawed lists, which have resulted in the disenfranchisement of eligible voters.”

 

The report also includes recommendations to change Arizona Election Law that were, in fact, already standard practice, like the use of a paper backup for all votes cast by machine; these were the same papers Cyber Ninjas already counted.

 

In her referral letter to Brnovich, Fann wrote that the Audit had found “less-than-perfect adherence to Arizona’s standards and best practices.” And that the Senate was already working on legislation to ensure Arizona has “an unimpeachable election process.”

 

In other words, more restrictive voting laws.

 

Brnovich, who was running for the Federal U.S. Senate, was receptive, “I will take all necessary actions that are supported by the evidence and where I have legal authority. Arizonans deserve to have their votes accurately counted and protected.” Journalist Rosalind S. Helderman called this, "a sign of Trump’s ongoing power in the party."

 

Republican Campaign Attorney Ben Ginsberg stated, “It is a huge defeat for Donald Trump … This was a swing and a miss at what he thought was a sure thing, and they missed by a mile. That should have repercussions down the road ... This was an audit in which they absolutely cooked the procedures, they took funding from sources that should delegitimize, automatically, the finding. This was Donald Trump’s best chance to prove his cases of elections being rigged and fraudulent, and they failed.”

 

Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, now running for Governor, "The Cyber Ninjas embarrassed Arizona for months, violated voters' trust, refused transparency, and stuck AZ taxpayers with a multi-million-dollar bill."

 

Maricopa County Supervisor Gallardo used the newly popular slang, calling it a "sham fraudit."

 

Maricopa County Recorder Richer, tweeted a playfully altered version of the famous photo of Harry Truman holding up a newspaper which announced the wrong person as winning the 1948 POTUS Election.

 

On the other hand, Mark Finchem, running for Arizona Secretary of State with Trump’s-endorsement (if he wins, he’ll oversee the State’s Elections) tweeted, “After hearing the evidence in Arizona Audit report I call for the decertification of the Arizona election, arrest of those involved in tampering with election systems, and an audit of Pima County as a next.”

 

Former of the Maricopa County Supervisors, and also running for Secretary of State, Fontes, tweeted back, “You’re a traitor against the Constitution and a fool. And you wear cowboy costumes like a cheap tourist. Go back to Kalamazoo, weirdo.”

 

During this narrative, I’ve spoken only about the Arizona Senate, where the Republicans have a slim Majority. The Arizona House was held by the Democrats, and their Oversight Committee had already launched its own investigation, not of the Election, but of the Audit. They chose this moment to send a letter to Cyber Ninjas’ CEO Logan requesting his testimony at an Oct. 7 hearing.

 

And the nonprofit American Oversight asked a Judge to find the Arizona Senate, and Fann specifically, in contempt of multiple Court Orders for not turning over Cyber Ninjas' emails and other records from the election audit.

 

Trump’s reaction was predictable, he lied. A lot. Like when he said he won the 1975 Housing Discrimination case that he actually lost. Like when he said that he’d been vindicated in the 2016 Trump University Civil Fraud case when he actually paid out a huge settlement. Like when he said Special Councill Robert Mueller’s report on the Russia Scandal exonerated him, when it was in fact damning to him personally and sent a lot of his friends to jail. Like he insisted he wasn’t Impeached even though both House convictions still stand, the contrary Senate votes doesn’t erase that, and no POTUS has ever been Impeached in both Houses. Like when he lied when he promised to release his Tax Returns, about the size of the crowds at his speeches, about how Obama had done all the things he was in trouble for now but “Fake News” ignored, about Obama not a Natural Born Citizen, about Obama supporting Al Queda, about Senator Cruz’s dad killing Kennedy, about “windmill cancer,” about his own height, his weight, and every possible thing in every possible way, every day that he has walked this planet Earth.

 

Trump insisted that the Audit uncovered “a major criminal event,” that it “conclusively shows there were enough fraudulent votes, mystery votes, and fake votes to change the outcome of the election 4 or 5 times over.” He demanded that the State “immediately decertify their 2020 Presidential Election Results.”

 

Governor Ducey responded on Twitter pointing the report did not call for decertification and that there was no lawful way to do so. "When it comes to the audit, like the three audits that preceded it, it’s now over. The outcome stands and the 2020 election in Arizona is over."

 

Maricopa Country Chair Hickman didn’t think so. The Senate Session was a factual vindication, yet he was somehow under investigation again. “This is not going to be over for a long time.”

 

Hickman was right and Ducey was wrong. Returning to last chapter’s Opera metaphor, Fann was the “fat lady” (though, in fact, she’s not overweight) and she finally sang.

 

And it’s still not Goddamned over.

 

The Gateway Pundit published a doctored version of the Audit Report. In the fraudulent one, there’s a recommendation to Decertify the 2020 Election.

 

By Saturday the 25^th, in Detroit, Michigan, Federal Senator Lindsey Graham debased himself, again.

 

Back during his 2016 POTUC Campaign, Trump had childishly insulted the Senior Senator and leading Conservative. Graham didn’t pull punches in his response, calling Trump a "kook," a "race-baiting bigot," and "the most flawed nominee in the history of the Republican Party." But Graham became a Trump ally sometime around 2018, likely related to the hearings for Trump’s second SOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Earlier this year, Graham raged at Trump after the 1/6 attempted Coup, but didn’t vote for his Impeachment a month later. And it was revealed a just week earlier that Graham and Senator Mike Lee had reviewed Trump’s so-called “evidence” for the Big Lie, and were dismissive of it. Trump was enraged and said that Lindsey and Mike should be ashamed of themselves for “not putting up the fight necessary to win,” and accused Graham of "letting the Democrats get away with the greatest Election Hoax in history."

And now, Graham said, “I don't think Trump is listening. He might be. I hope President Trump runs again … I've come to like him, and he likes him."

 

That same day, in Perry, Georgia, thousands attended a rally to listen to Trump. He proclaimed, “We won on the Arizona forensic audit … at a level that you wouldn’t believe … I have great, great friends that really want what’s best for us. They say: ‘Sir, you’re leading in every poll by numbers like nobody’s ever seen before. Think to the future, not to the past,’ … And I say, if we don’t think about the past, you’ll never win again in the future because it’s all rigged. It’s all rigged.” He promised an “even more glorious victory in November 2024.”

 

And still the same day, back in Phoenix, Arizona, more than 100 Trump-Cultists protested outside the Capitol, they demanded the Federal Government cease prosecuting the 1/6 Traitors and Terrorists, and many were in black-and-yellow Proud Boys garb. Among the attendees were former state Republican legislator Kern, who participated in the Insurrection; and Micajah Jackson, under indictment for his actions that day. Then there were those scheduled to attend but not appearing, State Representative Mark Finchem, State Senator Wendy Rogers, and a notorious Neo-Nazi “American Grayson” Arnold.

 

Construction Worker Wade Damma attended, “Short of bloodshed, I don’t know of any way to fix what we currently have going on. I’d take part in it. I’d just need someone else to be the leader.”

 

In the end, the Arizona Audit landed-out cost about $2.7 million dollars per-ballot counted.

 

As the month September drew to a close, Republican Legislators throughout the Nation had introduced more than 400 bills restricting voting access, and in 19 States, 33 of these had become law. Nearly a third of the 390 Republican Candidates running for office the next month publicly supported some States Partisan Audit, trivialized the violence of 1/6, and/or wouldn’t recognize Biden as the legitimate POTUS. 10 of those 390 were running for Secretary of State posts, a position that, in most States, held sway over Elections.

 

November 1^st was the day before that Election. Arizona Senate President Fann announced she’d retire from the Legislature when her current term ends, not this year, but in January 2023. She’d beaten up a lot of people over the last ten months, but had taken beatings herself, and was now facing serious legal scrutiny because of her refusal to obey two Judges’s orders and her relationship with Cyber Ninjas. True, she did throw Maricopa County to the AG Mark Brnovich only nine days before, but few took the threat of any prosecution coming from him seriously.

 

Election cycles in the USA are simple on paper, and complex in reality. General Elections are supposed to happen in November, except that there are some places that hold some of their regularly scheduled elections at some other time. Every four years, we have a POTUS Election, so in 2020 just past, and the next in 2024, and those Elections get the highest voter turn-out, but that turn-out is often unimpressive.

 

The Federal Congress is made up of Representatives and Senators, the former having two-year terms, the latter four-year terms, and they could face their fates during any even-numbered year, but not only/always during POTUS years; the non-POTUS, Congressional Elections years are called the Midterms, the Midterm following the last POTUS would be 2022 and the next after that, 2026. The Midterms are extremely important to the fate of every POTUS, but they have lower turn-outs, empowering organized pressure groups, so often the Midterms are dominated by those who are extra angry at the sitting POTUS, while his lukewarm supporters stay home, and that hurts the POTUS agenda.

 

Moving beyond Federal Elections, there are also State and Local offices, they are up for grabs during the POTUS and Midterm years of course, but those Elections also take place during the odd-numbered years, so 2021, 2023, and 2025. Those are called the Off-Years and have the lowest turn-out, so that’s when, often, the pressure-groups most express their power over the majority.

 

There are also Primaries, held every year, in which the Parties choose who will run in the General Election. There is no law requiring Primaries, they weren’t even standard fair until sometimes in the 1960s, and have lower turn-outs than any of the three versions of General Elections.

 

There are certain standards for how General Elections are conducted by the Constitution, laws passed by Congress, and rules and restrictions set by Federal Courts, but most election laws are set by the individual States, and many procedures are invented by the individual Counties within each State, sometimes there’s even District-specific rules, though those are generally frowned upon.

 

Primary Rules are set by the Parties themselves, though they must act within the confines set for them by County, State, and Federal Laws and Courts. An important thing to remember is that Fraud is illegal, but rules that are merely unfair are a fact of life, Parties are trying to enter Government, but not part of the Government, they are voluntary organizations, like Social Clubs and Churches.

 

Then there are Special Elections and Recalls, unscheduled, generally rushed and sometimes shambolisitc. And there’s more variations as well.

 

November 2021 was an Off Year election.

 

2020 had been super-fraught, and everyone knew that. 2022 would be hugely important, everyone knew that. The 2021 Election was now almost one year into Biden’s first term, but it would receive relatively little National press-attention, because the past of 2020 and the future of 2022 dominated the headlines.

 

November 2 was Election Day. It was tense after at least fifteen months of threatened and realized violence. But the day proved quiet, and across this contestant-sized Nation, turnout was low and there were only few a technical hiccups.

 

Did the results offer any lessons or prophesies of things to come?

 

Yes, and it didn’t look good.

 

Our National Media is mostly biased towards paying attention to the coasts, and this is reflected in their manner of coverage more than any stated or unstated ideological bias. Even on the coasts, there’s a strong bias favoring coverage of the northeast and southern California. In 2021, only two races of the hundreds of races were deemed worthy of National attention, the Governor races of New Jersey, which is north east, and Virginia, which has one foot in the south, the other in the north east (if you’re wondering what happened in California, Governor Newsom’s re-election was so obvious, no one outside of California cared). More important battles raged in the center of the Country than the coasts, or the south east and deep south, and these battles were won and lost in the Primaries, which the National Media almost never covered thoroughly.

 

The two big races were New Jersey and Virginia. In New Jersey, incumbent Democrat Chris Murphy was against Big Lie Republican Jack Ciattarelli in a State where Trump was unpopular. Murphy won, but only narrowly, which many deemed a bad sign for the Democrats. The issue Murphy won on, was also Ciattarelli’s strongest card, the need for strong measures during the 2020 CV19 pandemic, the State was that devided.

 

In Virginia, another State where Trump was unpopular, Democrat Terry McAuliffe was considered a shoo-in against pro-Trump Republican Glenn Youngkin, but lost. Yougkin ran a smarter campaign than McCauliffe, whose popularity was hurt as Biden’s approval-rating slumped; Youngkin accepted accepting trump’s endorsement, but kept him at a distance. He acted like a Republican from an older generation, before the Tea Party Revolution of 2010, but his Trumpsterism was undeniable: he embraced Trump-style Social Warrior stances, like banning the teaching of Critical Race Theory which was wasn’t being taught anyway (just after he took office, he established a “snitch line” to identify teachers who defied him in the classroom), he dodged questions about the legitimacy of the Certification of Biden’s Election win, he recommended an Audit of New Jersey’s Election results even though Biden took the State by a significant margin, and he campaigned on the State’s public-health interventions regarding CV19 being excessive, and not merely beat McAuliffe, but compared to 2020 POTUS Election, out-performed Trump in the most Republic Districts, and out-performed Biden in the suburbs (percentage wise; remember, few people actually voted).

 

There were only three Congressional Elections, all Special Elections, so not initially expected to happen this year. Big Lie, Trump Cultist, Mike Carey took one of these. As it was a Republican defeating a Democrat in strongly Conservative Ohio, the result, in-of-itself, not all that noteworthy, but Carey’s earlier Primary win was ominous. The Democrat, Allison Russo, was unusually well-financed (though less money than Carey, especially less out-of-state money), so perhaps Ohio’s Democrats thought the Republicans shot themselves in the foot by letting a whacko-doodle take the Party nod; and she ran a respectable race, but Carey didn’t merely win, he did by a huge, 17%, margin.

 

Because this Country is vast, and political so many races happen in so many places even on the Off Years, it’s difficult to assemble a National Snap-shot that digs deeper than POTUS, Governor, and Federal Congress. Though State-wide and Local races might have more to tell, but those stories were harder to gather together. The Washington Post identified well-more than 210 Trumpsters running in 2021, but didn’t track their fates through November. Buzz Feed News created a smaller list, thirteen None of the thirteen were suspected of storming the Capital and (with one possible exception, a losing Candidate) none were suspected of any other criminal behavior. Five of the group of thirteen ran for State-level Office in Virginia, three of those won, and two of them were incumbents, Dave LaRock and John McGuire. Virginia’s newly Elected Trumpster was Marie March, and said she was inspired to run when the Democrat mocked her family business in a tweet, “Who wants to start a BBQ joint in the (New River Valley) where the owners don’t participate in an attempted coup?” After the Election, March observed, “I won and he lost, so it’s kind of poetic justice.”

 

So, it seemed that Virginia, a State that had been trending Blue for years, was now awash with the Trump-Cult. Of the thirteen Buzz Feed identified, six won, so Virginia, with three of these six, seemed to be a leader, just like it was once the jewel of the Confederacy.