Half a Year After Trump's Defeat, Arizona Republicans Are Recounting the Vote

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

PHOENIX — It seemed so simple back in December.

Responding to angry voters who echoed former President Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, Arizona Republicans promised a detailed review of the vote that showed Trump to have been the first Republican presidential nominee to lose the state since 1996.

“We hold an audit,” state Sen. Eddie Farnsworth said at a Judiciary Committee hearing. “And then we can put this to rest.”

-snip-

.In fact, three previous reviews showed no sign of significant fraud or any reason to doubt President Joe Biden’s victory. But the senators now plan to recount — by hand — all 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County, two-thirds of the entire vote statewide.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/half-trumps-defeat-arizona-republicans-154749683.html

[ProudMNDemocrat]

1. The results will not change. Biden won Arizona.

What it does do is sow doubt in the minds of voters that there are now forces in place to make sure their votes do not count if the vote favors Democrats in the state.

Are other states watching? You Betcha!

[Takket]

2. what are the details on this anyway?

is anyone watching the ballots to make sure they all get put back?

are democrats allowed to observe this?

[abqtommy]

3. The kindest thing we can do with these fascists is lock them all up.

[CrispyQ]

4. I think this is about setting precedent for future elections.

They'll argue if a select committee of republicans only can count the vote six months after the election then why not one day after?

[leftieNanner]

5. According to a reporter

Who signed up to be an observer, the people counting the ballots had blue ink pens!! Which means they could be changing votes. The law requires anyone handling ballots only have red or green pens in hand because the scanners can't read those colors.

Gee! What could go wrong??

[AZSkiffyGeek]

6. The pens were replaced w/ red and green ones before counting began

But what would've happened if an election reporter hadn't been present to ask why they had them in the first place?

[keithbvadu2]

7. They already know their result. Now they need to arrive at it.

They already know their result. Now they need to arrive at it.

[Pinback]

8. So the "audit" is being conducted by a firm headed by a Trump-loving conspiracy theorist,

and one of the "nonpartisan observers" supposedly keeping things on the up-and-up is fucking OAN??

The head of Cyber Ninjas, the Florida-based firm that Republican senators hired to oversee the audit, has embraced Trump’s baseless theories of election theft and has suggested, contrary to available evidence, that Trump actually won Arizona by 200,000 votes. The pro-Trump cable channel One America News Network has started a fundraiser to finance the venture and has been named one of the nonpartisan observers that will keep the audit on the straight and narrow.

[-misanthroptimist]

9. Can't wait to see what happens when they come up with the same results!

I'm sure that they'll just accept reality.

[Mad_Machine76]

10. Just one more audit/recount

and then the Q folks will agree that the election wasn't stolen. Just one more.........

[SheilaAnn]

11. Are the republicans paying for this? n/t

[Mad_Machine76]

13. No

The taxpayers are on the hook for it, plus the recount group (Cyber Ninja LOL) is reportedly getting private donations. When the Democrats went to court on it recently, the Judge told them that the recount would not remain paused unless Democrats came up with 1 million to cover the expense of the lost time for the recount(?) It's a very weird situation.

Check out the Rachel Maddow video somebody posted to me in a response:

[SheilaAnn]

14. Weird indeed. Why would Dems have to come up with a million to cover the expense of the lost time

for the recount. Hope Dems act like trump and just not bother to pay it..LOL.

[Mad_Machine76]

15. It is stupid and the Dems aren't paying it

Unfortunately, that means that the recount will be "unpaused" and continue, albeit with some oversight from the Judge in the case.

[BGBD]

12. Republicans are making a really big mistake

in telling their voters that they were cheated instead of just beat.

It's like sports. You don't blame refs or say you got cheated because your team will take it to heart and believe they are doing everything right, and they'll never get better. Or, worse, they will start to believe that they don't have a chance anyway and will give up.

Republicans still crying about this imagined stolen election are setting themselves up for more losses as their supporters become disheartened instead of looking ahead. It's the old adage of letting a loss beat you twice.

[Mad_Machine76]

16. The crazy part is that most Republicans probably don't actually believe it

but are now in too deep to pull out now without angering the Trumpublicans, so either way they're pretty much screwed (hopefully).