The Washington Post reports, For Republicans, fealty to Trump’s election falsehood becomes defining loyalty test. The Big Lie is now the central organizing principle of the GQP.
The MAGA/QAnon personality cult of Donald Trump has checked out from reality, and is living in an alternate reality “bubble” that the right-wing propaganda media has created for them. I explained this phenomenon years ago, Epistemic closure and the ‘conservative misinformation feedback loop’ media bubble.
This descent into collective insanity is a threat to the survival of American democracy, and to our national security (more acts of seditious insurrectionist domestic terrorism).
Chris DeRose, an election law attorney in Arizona, and the former clerk of the Superior Court for Maricopa County writes at the Washington Post, Arizona is still fighting about the 2020 election. No good can come of it.
If you’re reading this outside Arizona, you might be mercifully unaware that the fight over the 2020 election continues to limp along here. Supporters of the effort, led by our state Senate and branded as an “audit,” most consistently say the purpose is to find evidence of fraud or error in the 2020 results or, failing that, to quiet concerns about the election’s integrity.
It will do neither of these things. No good can come of it, and it should end.
There is no function of government more critical to our republic than ensuring fair elections. As an attorney, I have led and worked on election integrity efforts in five different states, on behalf of Republican governors, members of Congress and parties. I prosecuted the first conviction for multiple voting in Arizona history to reach our court of appeals.
I know the stakes involved with election fraud. I am a proud Republican. I have and will continue to support efforts to increase the fairness of elections. This Arizona audit is not one of them.
There is no reason to question Arizona’s election results. Representatives from all parties were welcome to observe every step of the process, from the machine testing in October (and retesting in November), to the operating of polling places on Election Day, to the bipartisan counting of ballots. As required by law, a sample of 8,100 ballots were hand-counted and compared with the machine totals. There was a 100 percent match.
It was a good year for Republicans in Maricopa County. Excepting a sheriff reelected over lackluster opposition, we won every countywide election while maintaining our 4-to-1 majority on the county board of supervisors. President Biden carried the county by more than 45,100 votes.
The Maricopa County board, despite no evidence of an unjust result, responded to public questioning of the election by performing additional audits. Two companies, SLI Compliance and Pro V&V, are certified by the bipartisan Election Assistance Commission to test election machines and software. Maricopa County hired both to run every conceivable test for fraud or errors. They found none.
The Trump campaign filed one post-election lawsuit in Arizona, which the president’s attorney made clear was “not alleging fraud.” It focused on a small handful of ballots and was ultimately dismissed.
Anyone qualified to vote can challenge an election in court. So why didn’t proponents of the state Senate’s audit do so? Republican governors have appointed every judge in Arizona since January 2009, and every member of our highest court, where litigants are entitled to appeal every election challenge.
Instead, Arizona Senate Republicans issued subpoenas to the Maricopa County board of supervisors seeking voters’ private data, the machines and more than 2 million ballots. On Feb. 26, a judge ruled that the Senate was entitled to the ballots and machines.
Senate President Karen Fann (R) had no place to put them. Despite sending out subpoenas in December and fighting with the county for months and in court, it took more than a month for the Senate to secure the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, ancestral home of the Phoenix Suns, as headquarters for its audit.
On March 31, Fann announced the effort would be led by Cyber Ninjas, a Florida cybersecurity company with no experience in elections. Its owner, Doug Logan, had retweeted claims that the presidential election had been stolen through fraud.
Reporters were initially banned from the Coliseum, then given restricted access, and as of now can watch from the balcony, with many using binoculars. They are not allowed to take photographs or notes.
Auditors refused to say whether the vote counting would be bipartisan. In the next phase, they plan to canvass precincts by questioning voters at their doors. [Illegal]. Beyond the $150,000 the Senate allocated for Cyber Ninjas, it is unclear who is funding the audit. One America News, which has promoted baseless allegations of election fraud, is publicly raising money for the audit and has been granted exclusive access to live-stream.
The audit has been going as well as you might expect. The Arizona Republic’s Jen Fifield, who has observed the process, pointed out that blue pens were being used to mark ballots. As the machines can read blue pens, only red pens are allowed near ballots. Logan and Ken Bennett, a volunteer spokesman for the Senate, have given contradicting statements about whether machines would be used at any point in the count.
Volunteers [were] also using UV lights on ballots. When asked why, Bennett said they were looking for watermarks. When told that Maricopa ballots don’t use watermarks, he said he guessed they wouldn’t find any.
How could anyone expect a partisan process to yield a result more accurate and trusted than the one administered by professionals of all parties following established rules? If you’re a Republican who supports this audit, ask yourself this: If the Democrats had lost, how would you feel if this was their response?
As the Washington Post editorializes, Democracy can’t work if the GOP is devoted to restricting voters and rejecting their decisions (excerpt):
WITH REPUBLICANS out of power in Washington and a new president setting the national agenda, it is tempting to forget about the peril to which President Donald Trump exposed the country’s democracy. But GOP leaders outside Washington are still acting on his campaign of lies about the 2020 election, breaking norms and feeding falsehoods in ways that further endanger the U.S. system of government.
* * *
[T]he Republican Arizona Senate is conducting a recount of ballots cast in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous. The county, which is itself run by Republicans and has the equipment, staff and expertise to conduct election audits, already ran its own extensive checks and confirmed President Biden’s victory there. After these credible examinations showed the count to be sound, Arizona Senate President Karen Fann (R) decided to try another approach: hiring Cyber Ninjas, a Florida company with no apparent expertise in election auditing, to scour the ballots and election machines. Election officials across the country have watched in horror as the Senate has disregarded quality control standards. Mr. Trump is reportedly thrilled that Cyber Ninjas is examining ballots with UV light, though it is unclear what this test is supposed to show and experts warn doing so could damage the ballots.
The whole process appears designed to introduce irregularities into the count, rather than discover ones that real experts failed to catch. The goal is to provide “evidence” to justify Republicans’ efforts to make voting harder, particularly for the poor and minority communities that tend to vote for Democrats. The danger is not only that they will succeed in passing more restrictive laws, but that every time voters make a decision a partisan state legislature dislikes, lawmakers will seize the ballots from people who know what they are doing, conduct their own slanted count and declare the will of the voters to be fraudulent. If it works in Arizona, expect Trump allies to push for similar efforts in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and elsewhere.
Republicans must stop. Democracy cannot work if one of two major political parties is devoted to restricting the voters and rejecting their decisions.
The Arizona Senate’s sham “fraudit” has to end.
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Another MAGA/QAnon freak bites the dust. “US Supreme Court tosses Pinal resident’s claim of election fraud”, https://tucson.com/news/local/us-supreme-court-tosses-pinal-residents-claim-of-election-fraud/article_a23ec7e0-ac41-11eb-9838-c37f4e2b05d8.html
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out what is likely the last legal challenge remaining about the choice of Arizona voters of Joe Biden for president.
Without comment the justices refused to consider a request by Pinal County resident Staci Burk that she should be allowed to pursue her claims of evidence of election fraud. She wanted access to the ballots to prove that some were invalid.
What Burk wanted — and what the justices refused to grant her — is a hearing over the question of whether she was an “elector’’ under Arizona law who had standing to bring such a claim in the first place. It was that lack of standing that allowed state courts, right up through the Arizona Supreme Court, to ignore her claims.
Burk never got a hearing on her claims after her case was tossed last year by Pinal County Superior Court Judge Kevin White who concluded she had no legal right to sue because she did not fit the legal definition of “qualified elector.’’ He said that was because she was not registered to vote in the 2020 race. Doh!
She charged that her registration had been illegally canceled and sought a hearing. But White also found that Burk, who represented herself, waited too long to file suit. [Laches]
The state’s high court reached the same conclusion.
Chief Justice Robert Brutinel writing for himself and three other justices who reviewed the case, acknowledged that Burk contends that her registration was improperly canceled.
The justices did not rule on that nor even dispute her argument. But Brutinel said it doesn’t matter.
“She admits that she was well aware before the election that she would not be able to vote in the general election,’’ the chief justice wrote. “There is nothing before the court to indicate that (Burk) timely contacted the appropriate authorities to correct any problems with her voter registration.’’
Please just go away now.
Hey you MAGA/QAnon conspiracy freaks! “Newsmax apologizes to Dominion employee for falsely alleging he manipulated votes against Trump”, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/01/newsmax-apologizes-dominion-employee-falsely-alleging-he-manipulated-vote-against-trump/
In a statement Friday, [Trump propaganda network] Newsmax said it wanted to “clarify” its coverage of Eric Coomer, the director of product strategy and security at Dominion, who filed a defamation lawsuit against the right-wing network in December. After the election, misinformation about Coomer’s supposed role in manipulating the vote proliferated on right-wing sites, including Newsmax. Coomer said he had been forced into hiding after receiving death threats from Trump supporters, who believed Trump’s false assertion that the election had been stolen from him and that Coomer had played a role.
On Friday, Newsmax said there was no evidence that such allegations were true.
“There are several facts that our viewers should be aware of,” Newsmax’s statement read. “Newsmax has found no evidence that Dr. Coomer interfered with Dominion voting machines or voting software in any way, nor that Dr. Coomer ever claimed to have done so. Nor has Newsmax found any evidence that Dr. Coomer ever participated in any conversation with members of ‘Antifa,’ nor that he was directly involved with any partisan political organization.”
Newsmax also noted that “many of the states whose results were contested by the Trump campaign after the November 2020 election have conducted extensive recounts and audits, and each of these states certified the results as legal and final.” The statement ended with an apology for any harm caused to Coomer and his family.
(As for any of you MAGA/QAnon conspiracy freaks who sent death threats to Coomer, you can be assured the FBI is coming for you.)
In exchange, Coomer has dropped Newsmax from his defamation lawsuit, the Associated Press reported. NPR and Forbes reported that Coomer had reached a settlement with Newsmax, but his attorneys did not disclose the details.
On Sunday, Cain & Skarnulis, the law firm representing Coomer, said the terms of the agreement with Newsmax will remain “strictly confidential.”
Just write a check with lots of zeroes at the end.
An actual case of voter fraud – by Trump voters! “A Delaware County man admitted he cast an illegal ballot for ex-President Trump and gets sentenced to probation”, https://www.inquirer.com/news/bruce-bartman-illegal-vote-delaware-county-trump-election-20210430.html
A Delaware County man was sentenced to five years of probation Friday after admitting he cast an illegal ballot last fall for former President Donald Trump in his dead mother’s name.
Last fall, Bruce Bartman used the driver’s license of his dead mother, Elizabeth Bartman, to register her to vote online, and then requested and filled out an absentee ballot in her name, prosecutors said. He repeated the process for Elizabeth Weihman, his deceased mother-in-law, using her Social Security number, though he did not cast a ballot for her.
The state’s system flagged the registration for his mother as belonging to a dead person — she died several years ago — but Bartman signed and sent back a letter asserting she was still alive.
Bartman’s forgery came to light gradually, investigators said. Rumors began to circulate on social media after the election that a dead voter in Delaware County had cast a ballot, and a complaint was eventually brought to the county Board of Elections.
A task force of prosecutors, detectives, and other officials dedicated to investigating claims of election fraud followed up on the referral and found evidence of the fraudulent ballot.
Bartman, 70, apologized to Common Pleas Court Judge George Pagano during a hearing in Media, saying he took full responsibility for his actions.
“I was isolated last year in lockdown,” Bartman said. “I listened to too much propaganda and made a stupid mistake.”
Bartman, who lives in Marple Township, entered a guilty plea Friday to two counts of perjury and one count of unlawful voting. In addition to his probation, he is unable to vote in an election for four years, and is no longer eligible to serve on a jury.
Bartman was one of three Pennsylvania men accused of committing voter fraud by casting illegal ballots for former President Donald Trump during the presidential election. The two others — Ralph Thurman of Chester County and Richard Lynn of Luzerne County — have criminal cases pending.
CNN reports “Cheney calls out Trump’s latest attempt to promote ‘BIG LIE’ amid criticism from within her own party”, https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/03/politics/liz-cheney-criticism-trump-big-lie/index.html
Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), the No. 3 House Republican, publicly rejected former President Donald Trump’s most recent false charge that he would’ve won the 2020 election if not for “fraudulent” votes, her latest rebuke of the former president that has put her at odds with many members of her own party.
“The 2020 presidential election was not stolen,” Cheney tweeted on Monday. “Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”
Cheney’s remarks were in response to Trump, who said in a written statement on Monday, “The Fraudulent Presidential Election of 2020 will be, from this day forth, known as THE BIG LIE!” [Psychological Projection].
More from Liz Cheney: “We can’t embrace the notion the election is stolen. It’s a poison in the bloodstream of our democracy. We can’t whitewash what happened on January 6 or perpetuate Trump’s big lie. It is a threat to democracy. What he did on January 6 is a line that cannot be crossed.”
Ed Kilgore writes at New York magazine, “Trump’s Delegitimization of Democracy Isn’t Wearing Off”, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/trumps-delegitimization-of-democracy-isnt-wearing-off.html
People who are fond of democratic norms have been hoping that the widespread Republican mistrust of the fairness of the 2020 elections that Donald Trump created before, during, and after Election Day would fade, another vestige of four aberrant years yielding to something approaching “normalcy.” So far, it hasn’t, according to a new survey from CNN, which shows that 70 percent of self-identified Republicans do not believe “Joe Biden legitimately won enough votes to win the presidency.” That’s just a tick below the 75 percent who felt that way in a January CNN survey.
Link to CNN poll: https://cdn.cnn.com/cnn/2021/images/04/30/rel3e.-.voting.and.elections.pdf
[S]o you have a major political party whose rank-and-file members overwhelmingly believe, without specific evidence and without much justice in the broader scheme of things, that the president of the United States is a usurper who should have never been allowed to take office. That these same people (or certainly their elected representatives) are furious that Biden won’t significantly compromise on his key legislative priorities is grimly amusing. But you have to worry about today’s GOP mistrust in democracy becoming permanent. In 2024, how much of a Democratic margin will be necessary to give a Democratic winner truly bipartisan legitimacy? 10 percent? A minimum of 5 percent in every battleground state? Does the loser get to decide if the winner can actually claim victory? How about if the loser has said for months that any defeat must be the product of a “rigged” election? What if the Republican candidate is again Donald Trump?
In the long run, this phenomenon is a bigger threat to democracy than the thuggish but sometimes farcical insurrection on January 6. And like a slow-motion riot, the threat remains ongoing.