Now OANN is involved in Arizona’s Senate election audit? Can this thing get any more absurd?

Maricopa County is handing over its tabulation machines to the Senate today. Tomorrow, the county’s 2.1 million ballots will be delivered so Trump ninjas can begin their audit of the November election on Friday.

One America News Network is the official broadcast team of the Senate audit.

No. Really.

OANN gets exclusive livestream access?

OANN is the network that in February aired “The Arizona Election Heist,” an “investigative” piece so chock full of invented facts and imagined conspiracies about how Joe Biden won the election.

Among her other bombshells, OANN reporter Christina Bobb reported that 11,676 more ballots were counted than there are voters in Maricopa County.

Here in the real world, 2,089,563 ballots were cast, or just over 80% of the county’s 2,595,272 registered voters.

Bobb also is raising money to help pay for the Senate audit.

So, yeah, it makes total sense that the Arizona Senate would allow this “news” outlet to provide the only livestream of the audit and recount. 

Real reporters, meanwhile, are being told by the audit team that they can serve as  observers, but they can’t bring in notebooks or cameras. 

Yep, sure, that’s a nonpartisan effort

The only view the public will see, it seems, is the view provided by the network that is airing “Absolute Proof”, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s two-hour documentary – one OANN tells us is “exposing election fraud and covering the theft of America by enemies both foreign and domestic.”

And now his sequel, “Absolute Interference”.

The network that just this week reported the Senate audit “has largely remained a non-partisan effort.”

Former Secretary of State Ken Bennett, the Senate’s liaison to the audit, confirmed OANN’s involvement in the Senate audit. Video of the event will be available for viewing on azaudit.org.

“They offered to do the livestream and make it available to everyone,” he told me.

Oh, why not?

Already, the audit is being run by Cyber Ninjas, a small Florida cyber security company whose CEO, Doug Logan, promoted conspiracy theories as part of the Stop the Steal movement.

It’s being largely funded by Trump supporters since the Senate was willing to pitch in only $150,000. That private money, by the way, will likely go directly to the auditors and thus it’ll never be publicly disclosed who really paid for the state’s election investigation.

But hey, Senate President Karen Fann assured us just this week (via OANN, naturally)that this audit will be “independent, bipartisan and true.”

Did I mention that the audit is being conducted at Veterans Memorial Coliseum?

And here I thought the circus had long ago left the place.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter at @LaurieRoberts.

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*** This article has been archived for your research. The original version from The Arizona Republic can be found here ***