The Republican-commissioned recount of the 2020 Presidential Election results is well underway and state officials involved in it are dismissing the Department of Justice's claims that the Arizona election audit may not be in compliance with federal laws.
The Justice Department under President Joe Biden has aired its concerns through the DOJ's Civil Rights Division principal deputy assistant attorney general Pamela Karlan, who wrote a letter saying that two actions upheld by the recount may be violating federal laws.
According to NPR, Karlan pointed out in the letter that election materials such as ballots and voting systems are not in the custody of election officials, which means that they may be violating federal law that requires otherwise. These election materials have been subpoenaed by Republican senators twice, in December and January. When the Senate's subpoena authority was upheld by a judge, the election materials were turned over by Senate President Karen Fann to a Florida-based cybersecurity company, which critics believe are not in the position to perform the Arizona election audit.
In April, former President Donald Trump said through his new microblog "From the Desk of Donald J. Trump, "BIG victory today in Arizona. A highly respected Judge has just ruled that the Forensic Audit being done by the Arizona State Senate can and will continue. Over 100 Democrat lawyers were sent to fight against this audit."
Karlan added in the DOJ letter that the audit's plans to interview voters and ask them if they did cast their ballots in November last year could also be a violation of federal laws that ban voter intimidation. But former Arizona secretary of state Ken Bennett, who serves as the audit's spokesman, fired back.
According to the Washington Post, Bennett said that the company tasked to perform the Arizona election audit has not interviewed voters yet and has committed to abide by federal laws that prohibit voter intimidation. He condemned the DOJ's claims, saying, "This is a matter between the Arizona Senate and Maricopa County. We don't see any grounds for anyone else to intervene."
Former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, speaking of the Democrats' efforts to press legal charges against the audit on the odd claim that signature verification will "intimidate voters and suppress the vote," pointed out the absurdity of such a claim in an op-ed for The Stream.
"I don't understand what that means: the ballots were already cast six months ago, so they're not going to be suppressed," Huckabee wrote.
The former governor also condemned the DOJ's arguments of "hypothetical violations of federal law" as they attempt to interfere with the Arizona election audit, his op-ed at The Stream read. Huckabee insists that it is Dominion Voting that should be put to the test, accusing them of "defying a Senate subpoena" and "refusing to hand over router information as ordered by a judge, claiming it would endanger law enforcement and threaten citizens' privacy."
Huckabee echoed blogger Don Surber's sentiments that "taking back America is not going to be easy" in a separate op-ed for The Stream. He believes that "Democrats will use every dirty trick and every advantage of a politicized Deep State, plus lawsuits to challenge redistricting and election integrity laws and more."
Former President Trump said last week that the Arizona election audit won't be the last, encouraging other states to do the same. Trump warned, "The Democrats are 'swarming' the Great State of Arizona trying to get the Forensic Election Audit stopped, because only they know exactly what they've done, and they understand Voter Fraud far better than anyone."
