News Roundup: The Arizona ‘Audit’ Was — and Still Is — a Dangerous Political Stunt

The long-awaited final report on the Arizona Senate’s election “audit” is scheduled to be presented Friday afternoon, but its circulation among journalists and others on Thursday led to the early news that the recount had confirmed what actual independent audits had found months ago: That Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in Maricopa County. 

It is important to remember that this result does not confer any legitimacy to the sham process. From the beginning, the “audit” was a political stunt designed to provide a pretext for restricting voter access. And for the five months it has drawn on, it has fueled more election conspiracy theories, undermined faith in democracy, and inspired election-deniers and partisan actors to adopt similar election reviews in other states. 

While headlines have focused on the fact that the recount marginally increased Biden’s lead over Trump, reviews of the draft report have found that it still attempts to cast doubt on the results and on the integrity of the election. “Unfortunately, the report is also littered with errors & faulty conclusions about how Maricopa County conducted the 2020 General Election,” said the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. 

This week, American Oversight updated its report on the findings of our investigation into the “audit.” The Arizona Senate’s release of tens of thousands of documents, as ordered by the court in our litigation for the records, revealed further evidence of how the operation was compromised by partisan interests and deference to conspiracy theories.  

And we still don’t have full transparency into the process, as the Senate has failed to turn over documents held by lead contractor Cyber Ninjas, which multiple Arizona courts have ruled are public records and must be released. On Thursday, we asked the court to hold the Senate in contempt for failing to comply with court orders to release the records. 

Meanwhile, the Texas secretary of state’s office, under pressure from Trump, has announced a “full and comprehensive forensic audit” of election results in four large counties. Here are some headlines from similar efforts in other states: 

• Pennsylvania Senate Democrats sue Republicans to block election review subpoena (Philadelphia Inquirer) 
• Lawsuits claiming 2020 ballots were manipulated come to Washington state (Tri-City Herald) 
• Gableman says he will compel election clerks to comply with Wisconsin election review if necessary (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel) 

Despite the dangerous consequences of undermining faith in our elections — the Jan. 6 Capitol attack being the most potent example — the Big Lie remains a powerful force on the right.  

• The midterms are more than a year away, but the stolen-election lie is already looming large in upcoming races. “The Big Lie is metastasizing,” writes Politico, “with Republicans throughout the country raising the specter of rigged elections in their own campaigns.” 
• Reuters looked at all 15 Republican secretary of state candidates in five swing states, finding that 10 “still question” whether Trump lost the election. A majority have supported measures to restrict voting access as well as investigations of the 2020 election. 
• Just two weeks after the election, the Trump campaign knew that wild claims about voting machines switching votes were false. 
• A memo written by Trump-allied lawyer John Eastman prior to the Jan. 6 election certification outlined a six-point plan for how then-Vice President Pence could overturn the results. 
• The Washington Post reported that the White House is “leaning toward” releasing to Congress information about what Trump did on Jan. 6. 
• On Thursday, the select committee investigating the attack issued subpoenas to four former Trump administration officials: Mark Meadows, Steve Bannon, Dan Scavino, and Kash Patel. 

Other Stories We’re Following 

The Coronavirus Pandemic 

• CDC chief overrules agency panel and recommends Pfizer-BioNTech boosters for workers at risk (New York Times)
• Nearly half of the unvaccinated say they’re willing to get a coronavirus shot. The challenge is trying to get it to them. (Washington Post) 
• ‘Soul-crushing’: U.S. Covid-19 deaths are topping 1,900 a day (Associated Press) 
• Kentucky schools overwhelmingly keep mask mandates after Republicans scrapped state requirement (Washington Post) 
• An extra J&J shot substantially boosts protection against Covid, the company reports (New York Times) 
• Covid-19 vaccine for 5- to 11-year-olds is safe and shows ‘robust’ antibody response, Pfizer says (CNN) 
• One lawyer’s rise shows how vaccine misinformation can fuel fundraising and far-right celebrity (Washington Post) 

National News 

• American Airlines and JetBlue face antitrust suit over alliance (New York Times) 
• Threats against members of Congress are skyrocketing. It’s changing the job (Los Angeles Times) 
• ‘The pay is absolute crap’: Child-care workers are quitting rapidly, a red flag for the economy (Washington Post) 
• Images of Border Patrol’s treatment of Haitian migrants prompt outrage (New York Times) 
• The Biden administration is fighting in court to keep a Trump-era immigration policy (NPR) 
• Watchdog: CBP improperly targeted Americans as caravans approached border (Politico) 
• How accounting giants craft favorable tax rules from inside government (New York Times) 
• State Department closed investigation into allegations of racism and sexism against former U.S. ambassador to U.K. shortly before Trump left office, document shows (CNN) 

In the States 

• Floods, power outages, no running water: Jails during Hurricane Ida (Grist) 
• Georgia GOP Senate leader eyeing Texas’s restrictive abortion law (Atlanta Journal-Constitution) 
• Anti-vax, anti-mask school bills clear GOP-led Senate committee (Michigan Advance) 
• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton files 9 more lawsuits against school districts imposing mask mandates (CBS Dallas-Ft. Worth) 
• Florida drops quarantine requirement for students exposed to Covid-19 (Forbes) 
• Florida’s next surgeon general opposes mask, vaccine mandates (Miami Herald) 
• State Sen. Manny Diaz wants to ‘review’ existing non-Covid-19 vaccine mandates (Florida Politics) 
• North Carolina judges strike down a voter-ID law they say discriminates against black voters (NPR) 
• Texas Senate opens redistricting debate with proposed map one senator labels ‘intentional discrimination’ (Texas Tribune) 
• Wisconsin riot bill’s penalties are as broad as they seem (Wisconsin Examiner)