In the Spirit of Jefferson Davis (part fifteen)

 

 

Part fifteen.

 

 

In Arizona, Maricopa County is the one with the largest population and most ethnically mixed Electorate. It is said to be one of the largest swing Counties in the whole of the USA; it can, and did, secure Biden’s narrow win in a State that otherwise largely leaned towards Trump. Maricopa County had performed multiple audits of the 2020 Election results on its own, as required under state law, including a hand count of a statistically significant number of ballots and two logic and accuracy tests of voting machines.

 

When the Republican Caucus of the State Senate, led by Senate President Fann, demanded the 2.1 million ballots and voting machines be handed over, the County objected, arguing that they had done their job well, and moving of the ballots created a security issue. The County Judge sided with the State Senate and the ballots were taken. Fann repeatedly, publicly, stated that no matter the results of the Senates recount/audit, Biden’s win in the state would not be overturned; but she did little to discourage beliefs of clinging to the fantasy of overturning Trump’s win and returning him to the White House, not her own Caucus, not the Trumpsters, not Trump himself. One Citizen emailed a complaint that she wouldn’t promise to overturn the Election if the audit found. She responded suggestively, “Our only goal is to get this audit finished before they try to shut us down again. Sometimes honey does better than vinegar when you want to get something done. The vinegar will come at the end.”

 

Journalist Jen Fifield suspected she knew the ultimate goal, “If the results are believed to be accurate and fair by Senate Republicans, and the results say that there was fraud or misconduct in the election, the legislature may attempt to dramatically change how voting happens in our state.

 

“The audit results could be used by state lawmakers not just here, but across the country, in attempts to push through numerous changes to how we vote.”

 

Having won in Court, the Arizona Senate had control of the ballots, but immediately relinquished that control to private contractors. Four firms were employed for the audit, primary among them was Cyber Ninjas, which had no Election management experience and was owned by Doug Logan, not only a Trump supporter, but an advocate of the Big Lie, sharing false information about Dominion and other false information. His work was an important source of Trump Attorney Powell’s Conspiracy Masturbation. He had also participated in a previous attempt to overturn the Michigan Election. (Note: Logan lives in nether Arizona nor Michigan, but in Florida).

 

Another of the four firms, Wake Technology Services, already had a business relationship with Trump Attorney Powell, who was then-promoting a vast array of evidence free, Big Lie, Conspiracy Masturbations in Courtrooms around the Country.

 

Further, the companies we not fully transparent regarding procedures: The Press was heavily restricted, though some got were granted more access after they were informed that they would be allowed on the floor if they volunteered to assist in the count, but even then, they were forbidden to take notes or recordings on the audit floor. Journalist Julia Shumway called foul, “People observing even executions are allowed to bring their notebooks in with them.”

 

Only after threatening with a law suit did Journalists get access to the floor, but even then, they were restricted, they had to pool their resources with one print journalist, one videographer, and one photographer, who had to be escorted, even to the bathroom. But there were two news, or really pseudo-news outlets, that the harsh rule didn’t apply to. More on that later.

 

So, what were the workers looking for? Physical evidence on the paper itself that the ballots were fraudulent, and their methodology included shining UV lights on each ballot seeking indications that they contained bamboo which would allegedly indicate the paper was made in China (there were absurd claims that 40,000 fake ballots had been flown in from the other side of the world). They also examined each paper to confirm the signatures were handwritten, not mechanically printed, and that the papers were folded, necessary to slide them into an envelope.

 

April 7^th, saw a piece of highly partisan, and destructive, legislation passed by the Arizona General Assembly. Responded to complaints so similar to those made in Wisconsin in March against the so-called Zuckerberg Five, compliant of a type that Judges throughout the country had thrown out, so the Republicans passed a law asking a mundane, and essential, action illegal. The bill forbade any private money to be applied to any Government run Election-related activity, specifically grants made to facility the training of Election workers or help cover the costs of Audits. Democrats warned the measure could starve election offices of the funds needed to run secure and efficient elections and called it a Voter Suppression bill.

 

State Senator J.D. Mesnard disagreed, “If the Legislature doesn’t stop it, election funding will become the newest way for corporations and wealthy donors to wield influence ...This makes dark money [untraceable Campaign donations, a topic of National discussion but something the bill doesn’t address] look like a bright day. We should be proactively stopping that before it becomes embedded in America’s election system.”

 

Democrats countered that the grants wouldn’t be necessary if the Legislature provided enough money to county election officials to run elections.

 

What triggered this was Secretary of State Katie Hobbs using $4.8 million granted by the Center for Election Innovation and Research for an advertising campaign telling voters when and how to vote, encourage signup for the permanent early voting list, recruiting poll workers and combating misinformation before and after the election. Also, nine counties received grants from the Center for Tech and Civic Life, the same nonprofit that so enraged Trumpsters in Michigan.

 

And then the Republican backed the breaking of that same law, only two days later.

 

April 9^th, the same day Governor Ducey signed the above-mentioned bill, OANN Host Christina Bobb, tweeted she’d founded a group called Voices and Votes to raise money for the audit, The group reached its $150,000 fundraising goal in a single day, and kept going. Bobb solicited money, not only on Twitter, but on the air, while allegedly reporting the news. Actual Journalist Sarah Mimms balked, “Needless to say, no legitimate newsroom would allow its reporters to fundraise for an actual news event they’re covering.”

 

Bobb’s listed as President of VaV, another alleged Journalist at OANN, Chanel Rion, was listed as the Chief Marketing Officer, and Rion’s fiancé, Courtland Sykes, was listed as the Chief Operations Officer. VaV was registered as a 501(c)(4) organization, meaning its donors will never be made public; in other words, Dark Money. That also means that the group will never have to give an accounting of how much money it has raised or where that money actually went.

 

OANN also provided a 24-hour live-feed of the count. As a reward, along with Gateway Pundit, was granted unique access to the process that all other press was barred from, and This was as far from Journalism and as close to advertising, as one could possibly get.

 

By the way, Bobb disputes all the charges leveled against her and OANN listed above, even though their reality is obvious. She says she an OANN didn’t receive “special treatment” though she acknowledged that she had different access than members of the Arizona press corps, she claimed her assess was because of “availability … I have been denied access at certain times and had to go on different days or at different times … I am not permitted to attend whenever I want.” She further claimed that OAN wasn’t affiliated “in any way” with VaV, “other than allowing me to mention my efforts on air” and “has not received anything as a result of Voices and Votes' donations … I have openly and honestly disclosed all my efforts on air, and have handled the funds exactly as I said that I would.” None of her assertions are in any way provable, several seem easily disprovable.

 

Back in December, alleged Journalist Bobb had direct knowledge of the Fake Electors scheme, but not only didn’t she report it, she participated in it.

 

The Senate has only approved $150,000 of taxpayer money for the Audit, woefully short of what was needed, so private donations were relied upon, in explicit contradiction to the just passed law. And it wasn’t just Bobb. Another $5.7 million provided by pro-Trump groups and individuals. Trump Attorney Powell donated significantly, as her associate, the disgraced former CEO of Overstock.com, Byrne, who donated a full million. Big Lie Influencer and My Pillow CEO Lindell also donated. Disgraced former National Security Advisor Flynn did significant on-line fund-raising.

 

The Senate’s Liaison to the Audit Ken Bennett, formerly Secretary of State of Arizona, so once over-saw Campian spending within the State, and also once a Birther, would soon be challenged on this and explained. “I would prefer all of the audit costs to come out of the Senate contract and go through the state’s general fund, but that’s not how it happened.” Moreover, he admitted didn’t know where all the money was coming from (VaV wasn’t the only Dark Money group, there was also Fund the Audit run by a Florida-based Dark Money group called The America Project, that claimed to have more than $1.2 million of its $2.8 million goal, it was funded by Byrne, and that money is separate from the million he donated I mentioned above). “So far, I believe with complete confidence that the source of funding is not affecting what is happening in the audit. We are doing it right out there for everybody to see.”

 

April 24th, Big Lie Influencer Frank led a meeting of pro-Trump community activists in a meeting in a Conference room at the DoubleTree hotel outside of Denver, Colorado. He presented graphs that allegedly proving the 2020 Election was fraudulent (all his arguments had already been long-debunked) and a battle plan to combat it. "Go knock on some doors!"

 

And many people did just that.

 

Doctor of Holistic Medicine, Jim Gilchrist, attended the meeting. "I just kind of wished there was some mechanism for there to be a more transparent kind of way of making sure the vote was counted correctly … Douglas Frank kind of offered a solution that we could do as citizens."

 

Leader of the Elections Committee in Weld County, Carly Koppes, said she “noticed a tone shift in her county” after Frank visit to her town. She quoted and email, “Traitors will be exposed. These guys are going down and you have no chance...You deserve everything coming your direction."

 

Koppes was unimpressed with Frank’s arguments, "It started because of Dr. Frank and his really bad data analysis. Him and his people, unfortunately, just don't know how to read election records correctly … There's just so much that is incorrect that they just keep repeating and repeating and repeating, and then as soon as I have absolutely blocked off that path with actual correct information, then they just move that goal post. And they keep just moving the goal posts. And moving the goal posts.

 

"Some of these people really, truly believe they're doing the Lord's work, but I think at the end of the day, they so desperately want to believe what they're being fed, that they're using all means to justify what they're doing."

 

 

April 26^th, Trump, though barred from Twitter, had other avenues to engage in Social Media and issued two statements regarding the Arizona Audit:

 

“Incredible organization and integrity taking place in Arizona with respect to the Fraudulent 2020 Presidential Election."

 

"These are Great American Patriots, but watch, the Radical Left Democrats 'demean and destroy campaign' will start very soon."

 

In a third message, he attacked Governor Doug Ducey as "one of the worst Governors in America, and the second worst Republican Governor in America." The first-worst, Republican Governor in America, in Trump’s mind, was presumably Georgia’s Kemp.

 

Trump was mad that Ducey endorsed the Arizona’s certification of Biden’s wing. At this point, Ducey was restrained in his public statements on the subject, his impatience with the audit would become clear. During May, as the audit degenerated into a shambolistic mess, he complained, “Let's stick to the facts” and, of course, there were no facts supporting wide-spread voter fraud. In July he stated, “I don’t think we should spend any more time thinking about 2020.” That same month, he endorsed Taylor Robson of the Arizona Board of Regents to be his successor (Ducey had appointed Robson to the post five-years earlier) while Trump endorsed TV anchor Kari Lake and continued his insults of Ducey the “RHINO” (Republican in name only).

 

But still sticking with April 26^th for now, OANN Host Bobb stated on the air, “The Arizona election audit has begun and the entire country knows it will unravel the Democrats' schemes from 2020” Later in the same segment she added, “maybe” the audit would show there was no fraud. Then she laughed, “Maybe, Biden legitimately won Arizona.”

 

Yeah, Biden did legitimately win Arizona, and everyone but the Trumpsters knew it. And there’s reason to believe many Trumpsters did know it, they just didn’t care.

 

The audit was conducted in the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in downtown Phoenix. It became a place of pilgrimage for out-of-State, back-bench Republicans in Office and Candidates vying for the same, trying to increase their visibility.

 

The audit was only supposed to last a few weeks, it didn’t work out that way, it dragged through the entire month of April and beyond.

 

April 28^th , Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Daniel Martin ruled against Cyber Ninjas lack of transparency. Cyber Ninja’s insisted they could share procedures because they were protecting trade secrets. The Arizona Audit was already a national scandal, as you will see in the next segment, the new revelations only made it worse.

 

All throughout the spring, Trump “buttonholes” visitors at his private resort, Mar-a-Lago in Florida, about the events unfolding in Arizona, now commonly referred to as the Arizona Audit even though one County in the State was undergoing a recount.

 

A man crossing the lobby shouted out, “You’re our president!” a man crossing the lobby yelled out. “Thank you,” Trump mouthed back.

 

On at least one occasion, after steering unrelated small talk to the Election, he said, “Everyone is talking about the election. It’s the biggest story on earth.”

 

When an ally tried to engage Trump in a discussion for plans about a future presidential library, “He was totally uninterested … he just immediately launched into how the election was stolen.”

 

He told allies, perhaps he’d soon be back in the White House.

 

April 30^th, while on the counting floor, Journalist Ryan Randazzo recognized among the workers was former State Representative Anthony Kern. Back in 2014, before entering politics, Kern was fired from a Police Department for lying to a superior about missing equipment, this got his name was added to a "Brady List" of dishonest officers. After Elected, he worked to pass a law that would remove his name from the List, without informing the sponsor that it would apply to him. He also sponsored a law that would make it a misdemeanor to be a passenger in a car without identification. He was also a Big Lie advocate who lost in the 2020 Election, signed up as one of the State’s Fake Electors, and participated in the 1/6 attempted Coup, a trip he paid for, apparently illegally, paid for the trip with Campaign funds. As I write this, he’s under investigation, but has not been charged, and by 2022 was running for Office again, trying to get his old job back.

 

Meanwhile, Ryan Randazzo, had his Press privileges revoked and was expelled from the building.

 

Around the 31^st, Officials said the Audit would be completed by May 14

 

Nope.