The Scoop

BREAKING: Dems Will Not Put Up $1M Bond To Stop AZ General Election Audit

By • April 23, 2021 6:17 pm

Was the temporary halt all for show? 

After concerns about the security and procedures taking place of the Maricopa County’s general election ballots audit, the judge could only order a ‘pause’ to the recount if the Arizona’s Democratic Party could post a 1$ million bond to help cover the cost to delay the audit.

The Democratic Party will not be putting up the money to stop the recount even after the last-minute lawsuit from County Supervisor Steve Gallardo who alleged that the audit process violated state election laws.

Reported earlier, “The existence of the blue pens on the floor was reported by an Arizona Republic reporter who was an observer at the coliseum. Reporters are otherwise allowed to watch the proceedings in person.”

A reporter covering Phoenix & Maricopa County for The Arizona Republic is who alleged that there was blue pens on the floor, no photos were provided. 

AZ GOP has been keeping big updates coming out of the AZ audit, “AUDIT UPDATE: Maricopa County Superior Court has ruled that AZ audit will be paused at 5PM today (to allow for appeal) until Monday 12PM IF plaintiffs provide $1million bond for damages. Judge said ‘The audit will proceed’ but he wants to review policies and procedures in place.”

Some images posted to Twitter from Rep. Leo Biasiucci.

During Friday’s hearing, Gallardo’s and state party lawyer was trying to point at ‘security breaches at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where the Senate is storing the ballots,’ and the alleged ‘use of blue pens by recount workers, even though state election procedures specifically call for using red ink that cannot be used to tamper with ballots,’ according to AZ Central.

In the hearing, Superior Court Judge Christopher Coury said that he wanted to be sure the recount follows all Arizona laws and the Senate along with its contractors, to give more information by Monday morning on its policies and procedures.

“I do not want to micromanage and it is not the posture of this court to micromanage — or even to manage — the process by which another branch of government, the Legislature, the Arizona state senate, proceeds,” Coury said.

“However, it is the province of the court to ensure voter information and those constitutional protections are held sacrosanct and that also includes the protection of ballots under Arizona law.”

The audit could still be halted until noon on Monday if the plaintiffs post the bond.

“Roopali Desai, a lawyer for the party, said a few hours later that the party would not put up the money. She noted the stop would be temporary, but she argued the case has still provided some new oversight of the opaque recount,” the outlet reported.

“Requiring them to produce policies and training procedures is a huge victory,” she said.

 

Cameron Shizznit


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