The five-member Maricopa County Board of Supervisors held a 45-minute live-stream meeting today to address the outrageous claims in Senate President Karen Fann’s May 12 letter to the Board, which requested even more voter information for the audit, and commanded the Supervisors, four of whom are Republicans, to appear at a Senate meeting tomorrow to respond to her letter.
The five members unanimously told her to get bent, saying they are “done explaining ourselves” to these “nuts.” They won’t attend what Supervisor Gates called tomorrow’s “political theater broadcast on OAN.” Chair Jack Sellers said at the meeting’s conclusion that the Board of Supervisors “will respond to no more requests from this sham audit.” Anything more will take place in court.
To a person, the Board said they were tired of death threats, protesters at their homes, goobers calling them at all hours saying they should be “behind bars,” accusations that hard-working County employees are cheaters, and the “mockery” the so-called audit has made of the 2020 race. One Supervisor said he learned online that he was shredding ballots and feeding them to his chickens! It never ends. But the Big Lie and the audit must!
The 2020 election saw the highest number of voters in Arizona ever. Because of election screw-ups in 2016 and 2018, it was also the most monitored election ever. And two previous audits before the current clusterf*ck proved just that—no fraud.
The meeting began with Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, an elected Republican, responding point-by-point to three accusations in Sen. Fann’s letter: 1) Republicans say they need passwords to the voting machines and access to routers. Answer: Dominion has the passwords, not Maricopa County, and they only give them to verified election officials. Cyber Ninjas is not on the list. No, you’re not getting routers. As County Sheriff Penzone stated, that’s a huge security risk, and, besides, they hold no voter information.
2) Senate Republicans say the County did not send everything they requested. Answer: Yes we did. Cyber Ninjas, which has no experience with elections, doesn’t even know what they’re looking for.
3) The County deleted voter information (trump repeated this one). Answer: No the County didn’t, zero files were deleted. Recorder Richer said in a tweet after trump claimed “the entire Database” was deleted: “Wow. This is unhinged. I’m literally looking at our voter registration database on my other screen.” A longer response to the three points was sent to the Senate in a 13-page letter, which the Supervisors all signed (read if you have time, it’s a great smackdown).
Two themes ran throughout the meeting: 1) Cyber Ninjas, an “outside group with no experience,” doesn’t know what they’re doing, and they’re using the sham audit to fund-raise and build uncertainty so other states will follow suit. Chair Sellers called it “a grift disguised as an audit.” 2) Senate President Karen Fann is no leader. She’s been duped by conspiracists who don’t know anything about audits. She has allowed Cyber Ninjas, a Florida business, to take over this circus and use it to perpetuate conspiracies, sow doubt, and raise money.
I guess the Senate’s meeting tomorrow will be a short one.