The debate over the 2020 election has been granted new life, as Arizona state senate Republicans have successfully managed to secure an audit that will recount all the ballots cast in Maricopa County, as well as forensically audit the voting machines.
The audit began Friday and in short order, Arizona Democrats filed a lawsuit to pause it, citing concerns it would cause “irreparable harm to the integrity of Arizona’s election systems” by revealing private voting information.
The judge in the case — a Republican appointee who has since recused himself due to a professional relationship in his office by one of the attorneys filing the suit — agreed to pause the audit if Democrats posted a $1 million bond, which they declined to do.
Now a new judge has been assigned and a hearing is scheduled for Tuesday morning. And all sides, including former President Trump, have begun to weigh in. Meanwhile, the audit goes on.
For their part, Democrats believe the firm hired to conduct the audit is biased against the results of the 2020 election.
Republican state senators in Arizona have hired a Florida-based firm called Cyber Ninjas to oversee the audit. That move has raised concerns among Democrats, because of past tweets from the company’s chief executive spreading conspiracy theories about a stolen election in Arizona. Those tweets were deleted earlier this year.
President Biden carried Arizona in the 2020 election by a scant 10,000-vote margin, making Trump the first Republican presidential candidate to lose the state since 1996.
Trump weighed in over the weekend, calling for security to protect the auditors and shaming Arizona Governor Greg Ducey for not providing it. MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow is getting in front of whatever the results might be by declaring them already the purview of QAnon.
Anyone who believed the country had moved on from the political sniping surrounding the 2020 election should take a breath and get ready for round two.