Arizona Locals Are Revolting Against the Clown-Show 'Audit' of Its 2020 Election

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

12 May 21

The indications are the Cyber Ninjas may be outstaying their welcome.

hey're revolting!

Penzone said the law enforcement agency would be at risk if the county turned over the state Senate's intensified demand for certain routers, or digital copies of the routers. The Senate also is demanding certain administrative passwords to voting machines that county officials say they do not have. Providing the routers could compromise confidential, sensitive and highly classified law enforcement data and equipment, he said in a statement on Friday. "The Senate Republican Caucus' audit of the Maricopa County votes from last November's election has no stopping point. Now, its most recent demands jeopardize the entire mission of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office," Penzone's statement said.

The ongoing farce that is the Arizona Audit has begun to alienate the locals, especially now that the people running it are saying that it might extend into July. The sheriff has had enough, and the dwindling band of sane Arizona Republicans are scared witless of the long-term political cost. From the Republic:

“I just want it over. I think Arizona needs to move on and not be the center of more of this political gossip,” said Betsey Bayless, the former Republican secretary of state for five years beginning in 1997. Jan Brewer, the former Republican governor and Trump surrogate who served as the state’s election czar before her ascent to the governor’s office, typically speaks her mind. She didn’t want to talk about the audit. Neither did former GOP Secretary of State Michele Reagan, who cited her role as a justice of the peace…

Former U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl, who rose to become the No. 2-ranking Republican in the chamber, made clear he’s not associated with the audit, and sees little upside to it. “It is always the case that when there are serious controversies within a political party, it doesn’t do the party any good,” Kyl said during a phone interview. “And I think the divisions within the Republican Party will not reflect well on the party's chances of success in the next election. That's pretty obvious.”

It’s not obvious to the flying monkeys who are making life hell for Arizona’s Democratic Secretary of State, Katie Hobbs. From 12News in Phoenix:

For the second time in six months, Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, the state’s top elections officer, is receiving law-enforcement protection after a reported death threat. Gov. Doug Ducey’s office on Friday assigned Department of Public Safety officers to protect Hobbs after her office made the request. “It is really unfortunate that we are at this place that people are OK just making threats like this,” Hobbs told 12 News…On Thursday, a Phoenix real estate agent who’s a correspondent for the far-right web site Gateway Pundit shot video of himself chasing Hobbs and a staffer to her Capitol office building. He tweeted that Hobbs “runs in fear.”

“If people would stand up,” Hobbs said, “regardless of party, regardless of political consequences, and just say this is wrong, that would make a difference.” Hobbs said she was referring specifically to Ducey.

In addition, the state senate and the Maricopa County election officials are about to go to war with each other because the county board is standing behind one pissed-off sheriff, and because the people running the audit are a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

Bennett, the audit liaison, says the routers are needed to test another conspiracy theory -- whether the county’s ballot tabulators are connected to the internet. “Well, there are people that have always suspected something nefarious about elections being connected to the Internet," Bennett said Saturday to audit pool reporter Dan Zak of the Washington Post. "And so I think that's why the request was made." An independent audit done for the county earlier this year found there were no connections to the internet.

Yeah, like that will matter.