The Arizona State Senate established an audit of the 2020 vote in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county. After the election, the votes were recounted three times and certified.
The State Senate hired a private contractor who is a Trump supporter. Some Republicans are outraged.
A recount of the 2020 presidential election in Arizona’s largest county is becoming “dangerous,” the Republican chairman of the county board of supervisors declared in a fiery statement late Thursday, a sign of escalating tensions over the controversial election review commissioned by the GOP-led state Senate. In a statement issued after a lengthy closed-door meeting of the Maricopa County board, whose five members include four Republicans, Chairman Jack Sellers blasted allegations made this week by a private contractor hired to reexamine the election that the audit has already identified problems with the vote. Sellers said those claims, described in a letter by state Senate President Karen Fann (R), were “false and ill-informed.” “I know you have all grown weary of the lies and half-truths six months after the 2020 General Election,” he wrote. He added that the private contractors — led by a Florida firm called Cyber Ninjas, whose founder has promoted baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election — “are in way over their heads.” “This is not funny,” he wrote. “This is dangerous.”…
In Arizona, where President Biden was the first Democrat to win the state in nearly 25 years, the state Republican Party has strongly backed Trump’s claims, as have several members of Congress. But Republican Gov. Doug Ducey and Maricopa County officials have certified Biden’s win and said the election was fair and secure.
Republicans in the state Senate nevertheless ordered a new review of the results in Maricopa, where Biden won by more than two percentage points, even though state and federal judges had previously dismissed allegations of fraud in Arizona’s vote as lacking evidence. Fann has insisted that the goal of the review is not to re-litigate the election, but instead to spot problems in election administration that could be corrected for the future. However, Trump and his supporters have made clear that they believe the Arizona audit is the first step to reexamining Biden’s victory across the country...
Last month, the Senate used a legislative subpoena to seize Maricopa’s 2.1 million ballots as well as the county’s voting machines, and turned them over to Cyber Ninjas, whose chief executive, Doug Logan, posted now-deleted tweets endorsing theories that the November vote was marred by fraud.
Logan also has ties to Sidney Powell and Lin Wood, two Trump-allied lawyers who filed unsuccessful lawsuits after the election challenging the results in multiple states.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Dear GOP U.S. and state legislators: He’s unhinged. What’s your excuse?
AP: “Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer on Saturday called a Trump statement accusing the county of deleting an elections database “unhinged” and called on other Republicans to stop the unfounded accusations.”
The ex-president IS “unhinged.” But what are all these other fools’ excuses? Unlike the ex, they are (mostly) not unfit, habitual liars, and incompetent managers. The sick guy can’t control himself – they are the danger.
Their perpetuation of this disregard for recounts and court hearings which verify the integrity of the election and kissing this man’s ring are a gross disrespect for their constituents (including those who agree with him who need to hear the truth). There are dangerous to our democracy and “WE the people.”
(Liz Cheney for Time “Person of the Year”)
Too many conservatives are cowards and opportunists. The Republican party continues to ride Trump’s unhinged coattails because they want his base to show up to vote. They are willing to set aside reality and facts to potentially win an election and stop the Democrats, which seems to be their only mission. They don’t even have a platform.
“Unlike the ex, they are (mostly) not unfit, habitual liars, and incompetent managers. The sick guy can’t control himself”
Are you certain about that .
I suppose your question is rhetorical and it is a statement in itself.
But – never certain about politicians, they are not peas in the same ex-president’s pod. Even the wannabes.
Some of these people are college educated. They are veterans of Congress and politics. They had day jobs before they were elected. They have families and maybe a faith community. Our NRA-backed Senator is a conservative, poster-boy Republican. And, hasn’t said a word! I just don’t understand. They got the Supreme Court and tax breaks and the no-brainers a cardboard cutout of a president would have gotten in 2017. How can they go four years and not say a word.
So now, why are they still on his leash? They absolutely know better and still go down this path.
And, I think of the people who work in the offices of these people. How do they work for them? Are these the bright-eyed, idealistic youth of our future?
I repeat, “He’s sick, What’s your excuse?”
That would make a nice billboard on the entrance ramp to every state Capitol
If Donald Traitor Trump and his Evil Clowns Minions are not stopped, they will start Civil War Part II.
Glad to see DOJ has spoken up.
Karen Hobbs, AZ Secy of State , is doing a good job. She has a few elections experts observing on state behalf [had to file a lawsuit to gain access], who detail issues they’ve already noted in several subsequent WaPo articles. There are also some Dem and media observers.
I read elsewhere that Fann is trying to get the county elections dept to [re-]take custody of election materials and let the recount continue in their offices. (This presumably over worries that they are in fact violating fed law.) So far the dept is resisting, noting they are abiding by the letter of the state subpoena, period.
AZ’s “audit” is being run by an outfit that not only has been called ‘unqualified’ by IRL auditors, it is owned by a conspiracy-theory-nut with a mile-long track of biased tweets on AZ election results. And, um, the “recount” is being heavily underwritten by it45.
The guy who owns Cyber Ninjas is a Trumper who deleted tweets showing his partisanship.