In a sudden twist of irony, Democrats are now using "vote integrity" as an excuse to stop the ongoing audit of Arizona's 2020 election results, a report said.
Democrats in Arizona led by County Supervisor Steve Gallardo have filed a lawsuit to stop the audit due to claims of it "violating" the election laws of the state, CBN News reported.
The judge handling the case, Honorable Christopher Coury, ordered the company handling the audit, Cyber Ninjas, to give Democrats the option to stop the recount by paying a $1M bond that will cover potential costs from the auditing's delay. Coury also ordered Cyber Ninjas to follow all state laws.
As per CBN News, the Democrats did not pay the bond but are intent in stopping the recount since they claim that the proper procedures are not in place to "protect" the privacy of the ballots, which is the same argument raised by former President Donald Trump's team during the ballot's counting.
Tthe Republican Party through a subpoena obtained the ballots for auditing that was then conducted in Arizona's Veterans Memorial Coliseum and will last for 19 days. The auditing will not affect election results being certified already.
Yet the Democratic Party are on edge with the ongoing audit on the 2.1M ballots cast in Maricopa County, CBN News said, adding that the auditing almost did not happen due to the court battle on it.
The Arizona Republican Party condemned the Democrats for their actions in a tweet posted on Friday stating that the latter are trying to keep Americans out of the state's elections.
"Democrats doing everything to stop audit, including filing lawsuits attacking the "integrity" of the process. So NOW they care about #ElectionIntegrity?!?! Nope. They just don't want Americans to be involved in our own elections. Watch audit live at azaudit.org," the Arizona Republican Party said.
Democrats doing everything to stop audit, including filing lawsuits attacking the "integrity" of the process. So NOW they care about #ElectionIntegrity?!?! Nope. They just don't want Americans to be involved in our own elections. Watch audit live at https://t.co/YgAKN8EcYu pic.twitter.com/Nz3r8bcyDJ
"” Arizona Republican Party (@AZGOP) April 23, 2021
Members of the media were prohibited inside the coliseum unless they sign up as observers who are not allowed to take down notes nor have cameras with them. The audit, however, can still be watched by the public through the livestream linked in the tweet.
Observers also work on a six-hour shift. One of the reasons for this is that Cyber Ninjas have asked the court to keep their auditing procedures secret for the recount. The auditing company also asked the court to deny access to the media during the hearing should the discussion be on the audit's operation.
AZCentral reported that lawyers representing Cyber Ninjas said that "filing the documents in court publicly would compromise the security of its recount" since the records included "protected trade secrets."
The report added that judge Coury has already vacated the case on the account that one of the new lawyers of Cyber Ninjas once worked in his office and might compromise the integrity of the case. As such, a new judge will be handling the case in the person of the Honorable Daniel Martin beginning on Tuesday when the hearing is set.
In compliance to the state's procedures, AZCentral added that Coury also ordered on Friday that black and blue pens be prohibited from use in the coliseum during the auditing. AZCentral explained that this is prohibited in the state's election procedures because voters use the same colored pens to mark their ballots while election workers normally use red ink to prevent the tampering of ballots.
