Experts Call It A 'Clown Show' But Arizona 'Audit' Is A Disinformation Blueprint

[mahatmakanejeeves]

Experts Call It A 'Clown Show' But Arizona 'Audit' Is A Disinformation Blueprint

June 3, 2021 • 5:00 AM ET

{snip}

"It's an audit in name only," says Masterson, a former Department of Homeland Security official who helped lead the federal government's election security preparations leading up to November's election. "It's a threat to the overall confidence of democracy, all in pursuit of continuing a narrative that we know to be a lie."

By lie, he means the assertion from former President Donald Trump and some of his allies that election fraud cost him a second term in the White House. ... And, Masterson says, the strategy chosen by the Arizona's Republican state Senate leaders is working as intended to undermine confidence in the outcome of last year's vote. ... The process is a simple exercise in how disinformation spreads and takes hold in 2021. And experts fear it presents a blueprint for other states and lawmakers to follow, one that is already showing signs of being emulated across the country.

"Now we have a playbook out there," said Masterson, who is currently a policy fellow with the Stanford Internet Observatory, "where if you don't like the results — by the way in an election that wasn't particularly close ... you just claim you didn't lose and in fact the process itself was rigged against you."

{snip}

An NPR analysis of social media engagement data from the online analytics firm NewsWhip found that the 10 most popular stories about the "audit" on social media were all published by conservative publications, many of which have also pushed the false idea that Trump may be the rightful president. ... NewsWhip's engagement data encompasses how many times an article was shared, commented on or liked across Facebook, Pinterest and much of Twitter. The company analyzed a time period from April 1 through May 25 at the request of NPR. ... Five of the 10 most popular links came from WesternJournal.com, a conservative clickbait site that furthers right-wing narratives and conspiracies.

[FBaggins]

1. Are there indication on what they will "find"?

Are they claiming that some stacks are miscounted or missing ballots?

[underpants]

2. Hate to sound the conspiracy horn but - they are getting the names of all the voters

and how they voted. Just saying.

[FBaggins]

4. I don't think that data exists

You can’t associate a name with a ballot.

I don’t know Arizona, but you should be able to confirm who voted… but the ballots are separate

[PortTack]

5. Exactly..confirmed that with my daughter who lives in Phoenix

Names do not appear anywhere on the ballot, mail in or otherwise.

[AZ8theist]

6. Exactly.

No where on an Arizona ballot does a voters name appear. The name, barcode and signatures are on the envelope, not the ballot. Once confirmed, the ballots are kept and the envelopes are destroyed, I believe.
All Cyber Scumbags can do is spoil or lose ballots. Either way, they will produce a false number that will agree with their narrative that the election was stolen from the traitorous pig.
That was the goal from the beginning.

[underpants]

8. Well I'm just on a roll today. My mistake. Thank you for correcting me.

[MissMillie]

13. Cyber Ninjas was planning a canvass of those who voted

door-to-door, to ask people how they voted. I'm not sure if a court told them that they couldn't do that (voter intimidation), but it is my understanding that the canvass will not happen.

[MissMillie]

12. One of the things they're looking for

is traces of bamboo on the paper ballots. They claim that ballots for President Biden were shipped in from China.

[Turbineguy]

3. I wonder what will happen

when people start getting arrested for election and ballot tampering.

[PortTack]

7. As shown in the NM special election, where Dems trounced the gqp, Dems are not the ones

Lacking confidence in the Elections. Their depressing their own voters....works for the Dems!!

[C_U_L8R]

9. It is a crime in progress

And the evidence is mounting up spectacularly. These magats are so stupid. And will be so sorry when the federal hammer comes down.

[yellowdogintexas]

10. one of the proposals in the Texas election bills

was that anyone could claim an election was fraudulent, even if it would have no impact on the outcome.

However said complaint would have to got through a court process

[MissMillie]

11. The article is, of course, spot-on. What it doesn't include

is that whatever Cyber Ninjas finds, it will cause controversy, and spur demands for even more "auditing".

Cyber Ninjas, because they are not following set procedures (not even their OWN set procedures) will not be able to replicate their results.

What SHOULD matter is that three previous audits came up with the same results, but that's not what will matter.

The process will be drawn out until November 2022, and then will start all over again.

There's no convincing the repukes that there is not wide-spread fraud. Even their own "think-tank," The Heritage Foundation has only about 1200 cases of voter fraud documented since (I think this is the right year) 2003.

That's 1300 out of several billion votes.

[LiberatedUSA]

14. Experts should be calling it treason.