Just like that the ballot audit in Maricopa County, Arizona, is back on.
The pause granted by a judge today in response to a democrat lawsuit was contingent upon the democrats putting up a $1 million bond to cover the expenses incurred from the pause. The democrats refused to put up the bond, so the audit will continue back on schedule.
ARIZONA – A brief weekend pause in the Arizona Senate’s election audit that a judge ordered on Friday won’t happen because the Arizona Democratic Party declined to put up a $1 million bond that the judge requested to cover any expenses that the Senate wrongfully incurs due to the halt.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Coury ruled that the audit must halt from 5 p.m. Friday to noon on Monday. But that order was contingent on the Arizona Democratic Party, which brought the lawsuit seeking to block the audit, posting a $1 million bond to cover any expenses that the Senate wrongfully incurs due to the delay. The Senate’s lease of Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where the audit is being conducted, ends on May 14.
Roopali Desai, the Democrats’ attorney, said the party won’t put up the bond. That means the audit will continue uninterrupted. (read more)
[Full Backstory Here] The physical hand count of the Maricopa county ballots in Arizona will restart immediately. In addition to physical ballot auditing, a physical canvassing of some voters and addresses will take place to match the ballot to the voter. The pre-selected addresses contain multiple ballot returns, some in the thousands.
If there was any doubt something fishy was happening in/around Phoenix Arizona in the 2020 election, those doubts can be eliminated. Something sketchy is afoot.
A few weeks ago a judge agreed with the republican Arizona senate that an audit of Maricopa County ballots was justified. The judge agreed with the Arizona Senate that subpoenas were validly presented, there was information that supported the suspicion behind that ballot audit request, and the state had authority to reach into the Maricopa county election system and audit everything, soup-to-nuts.
Then April 1st the Maricopa County election board held a closed-door emergency meeting as the Senate subpoena was about to be executed. Again, if the board of elections have nothing to fear, then the officials would not be opposed to a public hearing of their “emergency” concerns. After all, sunlight is the best disinfectant.
However, the board result was to throw another impediment upon the pending audit by saying they would not facilitate the use of their Maricopa tabulations center for the audit. In a legally obtuse letter [pdf here], from the legal representatives of the board to the State senate, the board of elections said they would deliver the ballots to another venue, but they would not permit the ballots -or the electronic tabulation machines- to be audited in their current physical location.
This week – Wednesday the tabulation machines were transferred, under custody and with support of sheriffs department, to the Veterans Memorial Coliseum (Arizona Exposition and State Fairgrounds). The physical ballots arrived Thursday following a similar chain of custody and security transport.
The auditors are trying to be as transparent as possible knowing the outcome, if it turns out as predicted to find significant fraud, will be legally challenged. [Twitter Account Here] There is also a livestream of the events as they take place: