The Arizona election “audit” is completely falling to pieces
The Arizona election audit was an expensive political stunt, in which the state’s GOP did all they could to gin up their staunchest supporters and only manage to embarrass the party’s image further. Aside from the legal fees and headaches, and the blatant bigotry and stupidity on view for all to see, the party may have suffered a significant setback as the IT company involved in the Maricopa County recount decided not to renew their contract after it expired on May 14.
Wake TSI made no secret of its feelings on the farce to the state GOP’s chair after its contract was over – as the audit was forced out of its premises to make way for high school graduation ceremonies, to dealing with Republican observers who looked at ballots under UV lights in search of Trump watermarks, and other conspiracy theorists who thought traces of bamboo fibers could indicate ballots shipped overseas from China. As farcical as the QAnon beliefs are, this is showing its true toll, as people are recklessly coming close to violating and taking apart the most basic standards and procedures for counting ballots.
It’s one thing to laugh at this, but not enough. We need to make sure that this party never wields power again – and 2022 will be the first opportunity for many states to vote as many Republicans as possible out of their legislative chambers. A number of other state parties are taking a page out of what happened in Arizona – and one can hope that other tech firms follow the example of Wake TSI.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making