Results of the Arizona Audit Pending

Senator Karen Fann announced that the results of the Arizona audit should be made public on September 24, 2021.

Like many voters, we are curious to see the results. Like most voters, we have tried to follow developments that are confusing, to say the least. One thing that does emerge is that conducting a forensic audit of an election is much more complicated than one would think.

The Democrats must suspect some bad stuff will come out of this effort because they have picked up their attacks on the process.

The reliably Left-Wing Atlantic Magazine just ran a rather complete hit piece on the whole effort.

It would make sense for Democrats to step up their attacks. The purpose would be to color perceptions before even the conclusions of the audit are announced. While not very fair to the facts, that would not be the point, would it? What they wish to accomplish is to have the public not believe any of the conclusions of the audit by painting the whole process as illegitimate and unnecessary.

It recalls the famous quotes from Carl Sandberg: “If the facts are against you argue the law. If the law is against you argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.”

The Democrat yelling breaks into several diverse and incoherent arguments.

They contend the election was perfectly legitimate and therefore the whole process is unnecessary. Of course, many things in life are not necessary, but we do them anyway. Arizona Republican officials ranging from Governor Ducey, Maricopa County Recorder Richer, and Maricopa County Supervisors, are used frequently by Democrats as props in their arguments. They point out that these Republican officials were satisfied with the conduct of the election, and therefore that alone is proof everything was done just right. Hence, no need for an audit.

Of course, the proof is the results of the audit, not the presuppositions of Republican officials, many of whom conducted the election and therefore have their turf and reputations to protect. Besides audits are not to be confused with recounts. Both events are very rare, but forensic audits where one investigates whether the votes being counted are legitimate, as well as the vote count itself, has never occurred before in Arizona to our knowledge. State officials just don’t have much experience doing this.

The assumption is elections were conducted properly during the extraordinary events of the past year. But the contortion of rules to supposedly accommodate Covid left the electoral system vulnerable to manipulation. And what about all the money from outside nongovernmental sources, such as Facebook that went directly to officials conducting the process? None of this was “normal” so why should we immediately assume, without any questions, that the election was conducted properly?  Ironically for Democrats, if racist, misogynist, white supremacist Republicans supervised the elections, that is proof for them the process was handled well, as long as Republicans lose.

There were multiple statistical anomalies as well in the past election, which while not proof of wrongdoing, should legitimately attract attention. We will just provide just one.  The last time a President ran for his second term and lost despite gaining more votes than received the first time was 130 years ago with Grover Cleveland.  In short, this last election was highly unusual and historically odd.

The Democrat answer is that as long as election officials say they did their job properly we should believe them. To even question their performance is “an attack on our democracy.”
Horsefeathers. Our position is government officials should regularly to challenged on how they conduct their jobs. These officials are not angels and regular oversight is both necessary and desirable.

This slides into one of the major contentions of the Democrats, and that is the audit firm chosen was the wrong firm. The firm is run by political partisans who have no experience. Well, which firms have experience in a complete forensic audit? Since forensic audits have not previously been conducted, there can’t be many firms that have done this before. Notice if the elected representatives of the people (State Senators) choose the auditors, this is wrong. They should be chosen by the very officials about to be audited!

They constantly keep up the drumbeat that the owner of the firm believes in “conspiracy theories.” Besides, the name Cyber Ninjas is strange on its face.

Which theories? That the Russian collusion hoax was a theory, that the FBI and intelligence agencies spying on President Trump was a theory, that the head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff decided he would commit treason to head off the possibility of Trump doing something stupid…these conspiracy theories?

No, not those “theories” that became facts, but the hoary theory that the election was stolen, the Big Lie.

But how can you know it is a “conspiracy theory” until the facts are known? Maybe this is another conspiracy theory that is about to become a conspiracy fact? Holding your tongue until the facts are known seems like a better policy.

There is another line of argument for which we give some credit to Dennis Prager.  Would Democrats cheat if the opportunity presented itself?

Think about it.  Democrats are no better than other people.  Democrats thought Bush and his hanging chads stole the election from Gore.  Hilliary thought the election was stolen by Trump and said repeatedly that Trump was illegitimate.  Further, Democrats believe that Trump was Hitler, a Stalin, a white supremacist.  If you thought you could keep Hitler or the Klan from coming to power, would you cheat?  It would seem you would have a moral obligation to do so.  So either Democrats are saying these things about Trump and they don’t believe them, or they do believe them and act upon those beliefs.  Given the confusion of the “Covid election”, and you thought Hitler was coming to power, would you not take advantage of the electoral confusion?

Perhaps Democrats are so concerned about the election integrity project because they have been cheating for what they believe is a moral cause but deep down know they have swallowed their own propaganda.  To be caught both cheating and fooling themselves, is just too much emotion to handle, hence the over-the-top reaction to steps simply to see that elections are honest. The reaction to voter ID is a case in point.

Here are some of the questions we hope the audit will answer: Did they verify that votes were counted only once, cast by a resident of the state, and citizen of the country, that was alive at the time the vote was cast? Was the voter properly registered? Was a valid address and signature verified? Was the vote in question tainted by the influence exerted on a vulnerable adult or through the payment of money? Was the chain of custody of votes secure? Did all votes get to counting centers in the exact condition and number when they left the voter’s hand? Once delivered, were the votes properly tabulated without computerized manipulation of the results? Were representatives of both parties always present to observe the process?

Notice how these questions are ignored. It is all attacks and attacks on Cyber Ninjas. We don’t care if the head of Cyber Ninjas believes the earth was created by a giant lizard. As long as the process answers the questions in the previous paragraph, we think they are doing the job they were tasked to do.

If these questions are answered, then all parties should abide by the results of the election.

For Republicans, there are hazards in clinging to notions the election was stolen if that proves not really to be the case.

Losing sometimes teaches you that you are doing something wrong. Holding alive a myth (if that is what it turns out to be) keeps you from doing the hard work to do better, refine a better message and find better candidates.

It also may discourage the efforts of your own supporters. After all, if the election was stolen, why engage in politics? What is the point? It is a rigged game.

However, if the results of the audit clearly show fraud of sufficient scale to alter the election results, Democrats will have to acknowledge they cheated and legislation passed by illegitimate office holders needs to be repealed. If allowed to stand, that would truly damage “our democracy.” Those guilty of cheating need to be prosecuted and those officials who were derelict in their duties need to be fired or resign.

If this audit proves to be thorough and professional, it could be a template for many other states to undertake the audit process. If it is not an honest and professional inquiry, then Arizona Republicans have damaged the cause of election integrity.

As far as the Prickly Pear is concerned, we await the evidence. We wish the Democrats would do the same, but objectivity is not something you should expect. That goes double for their public relations firm, the mainstream press.

Our greatest fear is that even as the results of the audit are rolled out, partisan attacks will continue and by constantly making ad hominem arguments, the real truth will never be heard above the din.