An Arizona legislator running for secretary of state found herself on the wrong side of quickly turning GOP sentiment on Saturday after she voiced opposition to the frivolous and seemingly unending audit of 2020 election results in the state's Maricopa County. A crowd booed State Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita off the stage before she could even complete a thought at a "Protect Our Elections" rally the anti-Democrat PAC Turning Point Action held in support of former President Donald Trump’s election fraud conspiracy theories in Phoenix.
"Why don't you listen to what I have to say? We the people, look. It’s we the people who are empowered by our founding..." Ugenti-Rita told the crowd in video shared by Brahm Resnik, a reporter for KPNX. "Listen. Fine, Okay ... I am running to be your next secretary of state. I'm going to win the primary. Thank you very much." She conceded after several failed attempts to start her speech and walked off of the stage after about 90 seconds, Newsweek reported.
Resnik said in a Twitter thread that the crowd's reaction was in response to the legislator opposing a fellow Republican's wish list for election changes."FYI Trump base crowd was primed to boo @MichelleUgenti. Wasn’t anything she said," Resnik tweeted. "Boos rained all over room from start till she bailed out.”
Ugenti-Rita tweeted a thread of her own after the event. In it she said:
“I’ve been on the frontlines of the battle for election integrity for the last 10 years. I wrote the law banning ballot harvesting, cleaned-up our mail-in voter rolls, strengthened ID requirements just to name a few of my accomplishments, (1of 5)
something every candidate on that stage praised. I’ll put my record of fighting for election integrity up against anyone. What I won’t do is vote for “show” legislation that does nothing to strengthen election integrity and introduced for self serving reasons. (2 of 5)
There’s too much at stake. Our election system is under constant assault by the left, and I won’t support bills that fail to strengthen our election system. The same holds true for the audit. I supported the audit, but I do not support the Trump audit any longer. (3 of 5)
I wanted to review our election processes and see what, if anything, could be improved. Sadly, it’s now become clear that the audit has been botched. The total lack of competence by @FannKfann over the last 5 months has deprived the voters of Arizona a comprehensive…(4 of 5)
accounting of the 2020 election. That’s inexcusable, but it shows what can happen when Republicans do not take election integrity deadly serious. (5 of 5)”
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, who Ugenti-Rita referenced on Twitter by the handle @FannKfann, was issued a litigation hold and preservation notice in May hinting at possible legal action regarding the many lies told by those tasked with auditing 2020 election results, Newsweek reported. "It is clear the Arizona Senate and its contractors do not intend to retract false allegations defaming the County and its employees," Republican Maricopa County Chairman Jack Sellers said in a statement Newsweek obtained. “For that reason, Maricopa County is formally requesting Senate President Fann, Senator (Warren) Petersen, Senate liaison Ken Bennett and contractors involved in the 'audit' preserve documents and evidence as they may be subject to future legal claims.”
Although Maricopa County officials finalized audit results last November showing President Joe Biden's victory in the county, Republican legislators have pursued other audits clutching tightly to Trump's unsubstantiated claims of widespread election fraud. The company the majority-Republican Arizona Senate hired to audit election results already audited is none other than Cyber Ninjas, a tech company based in Florida with no experience conducting audits and with ties to conspiracy theories promoted by the business’ CEO Doug Logan, USA Today reported.
"We have 74,243 mail-in ballots where there is no clear record of them being sent," Logan reportedly said during a state Senate briefing earlier this month. Jason Berry, a communications manager for Maricopa County, told USA Today: "Without knowing exactly what data the Senate contractors are using and how they're interpreting it, we can't know for sure where they came up with 74,000."
The county addressed the claim regarding mail-in ballots and several others in a Twitter thread on July 15:
Ryan Randazzo, a reporter forThe Arizona Republic, also tweeted a synopsis of the prolonged controversy on Friday. "The liaison for the Arizona election audit gave some data to outside experts who want to check the Cyber Ninjas' work, and then he was locked out of the audit,” Randazzo said in the tweet. “Also it looks like the ninjas miscounted and the roof on the budget building is leaking."
With the power to stop much of this uselessness with a simple concession speech, Trump instead continued to egg on the controversy on Saturday. "You know, if somebody robs Tiffany, a beautiful jeweler, 57th and Fifth, good location, excellent location, and they steal the diamonds, and then they get caught, they have to turn the diamonds back," Trump said during the rally in Arizona. "It's very simple, amazing the way it works. And I only wish that my friend Mike Pence had that additional courage to send (...) the results back to the legislatures because it all happened so quickly.
“You know they schemed on this plan for four years. This all happened so quickly.”
