You know, if I was one of those cranial black holes in the Arizona state senate GOP right now, I’d look like a hockey player getting ready for game seven of the Stanley Cup finals. Mainly, I’d have a Grizzly Adams beard from not being able to look at myself in the mirror for the last five months to shave in the morning. But apparently these political bottom feeders have no shame.
This whole thing started off as a combination political power play for new voting laws, PR stunt, sop to Trump’s bruised ego about losing Arizona, and a chance for a Trump Q-Anon grifter to make a bundle. Since Arizona certified its election results, and congress certified the electoral college, the whole thing is an exercise in futility. But now it’s crossing the border into ludicrous, and state GOP Senate members are starting to wish that they had sent El Pendejo Presidente a condolence card with a KFC gift certificate in it.
Over the weekend, an Arizona newspaper published an audit of the fraudit. There were more than 3 million votes cast in Maricopa County, the one subject to the audit. After more than 5 months, the fraudit has found about 200 votes that were listed as questionable or suspicious. But you can’t take questionable or suspicious to court. And of those 200 suspicious votes, a brain numbing four votes, two Democratic and two Republican have been criminally charged.
Here’s where the world champion class fiscal stupidity comes in. Forget about the millions of bucks that the Cyber Ninja grifter is hauling from Trombie sheeple making donations to the con. Back at the start of this whole mess, the Arizona Senate GOP seeded the original contract with a $150,000 payment, with the rest to be covered by private donations. And of course, those were taxpayer dollars, the Senate GOP wasn’t taking up any collections amongst themselves.
So, congratulations citizens of Arizona! Y’all just shelled out $37,500 a head to prosecute for possible fraudulent voters, each one of which figures to get about a $500 fine and 2-5 years probation! I’m old enough to remember when we US citizens used to have cardiac kittens over the military spending $18,000 for a frigging hammer, or $25,000 for a freakin’ toilet seat. But your GOP Senators make those clowns look like a bunch of die hard, conservative fiscal hawks!
And don’t put your wallets away just yet Arizonans, because the fun is just starting. Maricopa County has already been advised by the Secretary of State’s office that it is going to have to spend millions to replace all of the voting machines and tabulating equipment that they turned over under subpoena. Since Cyber Ninja’s aren’t a certified audit company, that equipment is now tainted, and can’t be used in future elections. And the Maricopa County Board of Elections has already made it crystal clear that they have no intention of footing the whole bill for the GOP Senate’s nonsense by themselves. More wallet Hoovering to come.
This is the true cost and stupidity of today’s Trumpian GOP. What started out as a $150,000 publicity stunt for voter suppression, and a sop to Trump’s base is now literally going to cost the citizens of Arizona millions of tax dollars to clean up after. Just a little something else to think about heading into the brand shiny new voting booths next November.
I really hope people are paying attention to this nonsense. And like you say, Murf, I hope they remember it in the upcoming election cycle.
Maybe the Maricopa County Board of Elections should bill each and every single member of the Arizona Senate who initiated this process for the cost of the new machines as a bit of a warning to other politicians who might consider pulling such electoral shenanigans in the future. I know this might be indirectly billing the people of Arizona because the senators would obviously use whatever salary they receive but, at the same time, the cost will likely exceed whatever money they get from tax dollars. Make them have to use their (likely leftoever) election campaign funds to reimburse Maricopa County for their bad behavior.
That would be nice but in violation of the Consent Decree agreement which was reached between Maricopa County and the state Senate after all of this went to court. There is an indemnification clause in the agreement so that the state Senate is liable to Maricopa County for any and all costs the county incurs for any damage down by the “investigation” done by the state Senate. So AZ taxpayers are on the hook for the $3 million+ for the machines that need to be replaced, but ultimately the majority of those AZ taxpayers are in Maricopa County. This is not going over well with most Independents, who are approximately 1/3 of the voters in AZ and whom Republicans need in order to stay in power. Hopefully they keep this charade up and the Independents will not vote for the Republicans who are running for state offices next year.
I think the three million is the entire set of voters. (The state has fewer than 8 million people.)
Evil stupidity has a cost.
Now we need to support the National Popular Vote bill and state legislators in states with the 75 more electoral votes needed to enact it. It will make every vote in every state matter and count equally, and guarantee the presidency to the candidate who wins the most popular votes in the country.
Most Americans think it is wrong that the candidate with the most national popular votes can lose.
The current state-by-state system of electing the President creates unnecessary recounts, lawsuits, and doubt.
The sheer magnitude of the national popular vote number, compared to individual state vote totals, is much more robust against “pure insanity,” deception, and manipulation.
Well-said, Susan!