Lahmeyer is amongst a slew of 2022 political aspirants or lawmakers who’ve trekked to the positioning of the Arizona Senate’s “audit,” to cozy as much as former President Donald J. Trump’s supporters and tie themselves to the phony notion that the election was stolen.
Despite the fact that Trump gained Oklahoma with 65.4 p.c of the vote, Lahmeyer says he is involved: “Do I imagine there was voter fraud in Oklahoma in 2020? Sure,” he informed CNN, after visiting Arizona. “I imagine there was voter fraud in all 50 states … Who might presumably imagine the concept there have been 80 million votes for Joe Biden?”
These GOP politicians have used the Arizona audit’s key function on the heart of the stolen-election narrative to attract consideration to their very own 2022 campaigns, and as proof of their dedication to Trump as they fundraise.
Amongst others who’ve made the journey: Vernon Jones, a former Georgia lawmaker who spoke at Trump’s Jan. 6 rally in DC, and is working to unseat Gov. Brian Kemp, whom he is known as “a traitor;” Chuck Grey, a Wyoming state home member mounting a major problem towards Rep. Liz Cheney; Amanda Chase, a Virginia state senator who spoke in DC on Jan. 6, was censured by her state senate, and flirted with an unbiased candidacy after shedding the GOP nomination for this November’s Virginia gubernatorial race; and Eric Greitens, who resigned as Missouri governor in 2018 amid studies he’d abused and blackmailed a girl with whom he was having an affair. Greitens admitted the affair however denied blackmailing her, and the fees towards him have been dropped. He’s now working for the US Senate seat left open subsequent 12 months by Sen. Roy Blunt’s retirement.
Trump himself is scheduled to go to Arizona this Saturday, the place he appears to say, but once more, that the Arizona audit would be the first domino in displaying fraud in a string of states that Biden narrowly gained, together with Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
On this narrative, fact does not merely take a again seat. It will get tossed to the facet of the street.
Take final week’s GOP briefing at Arizona’s state capitol, the place Doug Logan, lead contractor on the evaluate of ballots in Maricopa County, stated “we’ve 74,243 mail-in-ballots the place there isn’t a clear report of them being despatched,” and 11,326 individuals whom he stated weren’t on the Nov. 7 voter rolls however confirmed up on the ultimate roll of voters on Dec. 4.
However that did not matter. Inside minutes, and within the week since, Donald Trump and a slew of GOP election conspiracists trumpeted these supposed findings throughout social media as “proof” the election was stolen. And candidates touting their fealty to Trump have been fast to tweet, re-tweet or in any other case put up Logan’s debunked claims and name for extra audits.
From the beginning, with Arizona Senate President Karen Fann hiring the Cyber Ninjas agency, a little-known agency inexperienced in election audits, run by a person who’d repeated wild conspiratorial fraud claims; to the evaluate being funded with nice secrecy by non-public, probably partisan sources; by way of the corporate initially handing auditors blue pens till a reporter identified they might be used to alter how ballots are learn; to, extra just lately, contractors sending reams of vote knowledge off to a mysterious cabin in Montana, within the newest portion of the audit, the Arizona vote evaluate has been fraught.
There might scarcely be a deeper canyon than the one between how election consultants see the audit and the way Trump-backing GOP candidates describe it.
“Was this deliberate from day one for fundraising?” requested Harri Hursti, founding father of Nordic Innovation Labs, and a data-security professional who just lately accomplished a traditional election audit in New Hampshire, concerning the Arizona vote evaluate. “This complete factor is theater … it is all smoke and mirrors and theater.” The New Hampshire audit, against this, discovered {that a} borrowed folding machine within the city of Windham induced 400 ballots to be improperly counted, however that there was “no foundation to imagine that the miscounts present in Windham point out a sample of partisan bias or a failed election.”
“If you’re a Republican who has considerations about this election, you should not belief the result of this evaluate in Arizona,” Grayson informed CNN.
“Routine audits of vote counts are essential,” stated Mark Lindeman, performing co-director of Verified Voting, a nonpartisan election-integrity nonprofit that earlier this 12 months labored with Georgia on a full hand rely of its vote and with Pennsylvania on a risk-limiting election audit. Each indicated that the unique outcomes have been considerably correct.
However in Arizona, he stated, “The issue appears to be that Trump misplaced, and that is what they’re making an attempt to repair; however that is not what audits do.” He known as the procedures Cyber Ninjas and the opposite subcontractors in Arizona are following weird, including, “It is a course of that may solely elevate extra questions, muddy the waters … None of it makes a lot sense, besides as a solution to improve doubt.”
However lots of the GOP candidates and lawmakers visiting Arizona, who’ve eagerly fomented lies concerning the 2020 vote, and embraced vicious and radical rhetoric about those that disagree with them, dismiss such criticisms.
“I do not care what a GOP board says; you will have a variety of RINOs occupying positions they shouldn’t be in,” stated Oklahoma’s Lahmeyer, utilizing the time period for “Republicans in identify solely.” Lahmeyer, who touts his endorsement from disgraced former Gen. Michael Flynn, and hopes to unseat GOP Sen. James Lankford in 2022, termed Lankford “a traitor,” for voting on Jan. 6 to certify President Biden’s victory. As of June 30, Lahmeyer reported elevating simply greater than $250,000 to the Federal Election Fee. Lankford’s FEC studies present he’d raised $2.3 million as of that date.
Jones, the previous Georgia lawmaker, has known as Gov. Kemp “a traitor” for rejecting election fraud claims. Requested about his go to to the Arizona audit and his claims of fraud in Georgia, Jones stated, “It has helped my marketing campaign. From day one, I’ve talked about issues I described as violation of the Structure, the procedures adopted in counting absentee ballots.” His fundraising web site particularly asks for contributions to “make sure that Georgia’s elections are by no means stolen by Democrats once more.”
Chase, the Virginia lawmaker, stated she plans to push for an audit in Virginia when its legislature goes into session in August. “I do imagine there have been irregularities and an organized effort by Democrats to steal the election from President Trump, and hundreds of votes flipped. There must be a forensic audit in each state,” she stated.
And in Arizona, the place term-limited Gov. Doug Ducey will not be working for reelection, at the least two GOP candidates for governor have echoed on social media Logan’s debunked claims about election issues.
Lindeman, of Verified Voting, sighed throughout a dialogue of such claims, and stated that whereas election audits can all the time be improved, “they have been higher in 2020 than they’ve ever been.”
“There isn’t a rational foundation for the notion that one thing horrible occurred in November 2020 and we’ve to maintain investigating and investigating till we discover it,” he stated, including that, “what’s been misplaced is any shared nationwide dedication to search for information.”
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