Yes, there was fraud surrounding Arizona’s election

There’s no easy way to put this.

The suspicions of everyone have been confirmed.

There was fraud surrounding the Arizona election. That includes all of you, meaning those who need to believe there was voter fraud and those who believe the only fraud has been the fraudulent “audit” carried out at the behest of Republicans in the Arizona Senate.

Fraud exists.

Fraud is real.

Our voter data was shipped to … Montana?

It began to be perpetrated on the citizens of Arizona when Republican Senate President Karen Fann (who has admitted more than once that there was no actual election fraud) decided to authorize an “audit” in which she embraced a tainted process that violates all of the unbiased safety and security measures previous Arizona lawmakers created to protect our elections and our precious voter information.

Fann understands that some members of her party – a majority perhaps – simply need to believe the election was stolen.

So, she chose to reinforce that myth.

She hired an unqualified firm to conduct the audit, with a conspiracy-spouting CEO. Then she filled the counting room with Trump sycophants looking to produce the outcome they already believed to be true.

Then she allowed voter information to be spirited out of state, to Montana, with no independent observers to verify who was handling that data or how they may be corrupting it or even where, specifically, it was.

It was like hiring pointy-eared, candy-cane eating elves to determine if Santa Claus is real.

The election audit will change no one’s mind

So, what happens with the people behind the “fraudit” announce their results?

We know the answer.

Actually, we have known the answer since before the process began.

Those who believe there was fraud – in spite of clear evidence from the Republican-run Maricopa County Recorder’s Office and two independent auditors that there was none – will continue to believe there was fraud.

Those who know – by way of that unbiased evidence – that there was no fraud will not be convinced by anything presented by the unqualified Trump zombies operating with a clear prejudicial agenda.

The mind of no one is changed.

And, of course, the election results will not change. Donald Trump will not be “reinstated,” no matter his delusional belief in that happening. (Wouldn’t it be nice if a former president had at least a smidgen of understanding of the Constitution?)

Believers in the “stolen election” are political “Flat Earthers,” unconvinced by photos from space, or the circular shadow of the Earth on the moon during a lunar eclipse, or the way the mast of a ship appears to sink into the horizon.

The “stolen election,” like a flat Earth, is a myth they somehow need to believe.

So, when all is said and done, the “fraudit” will not have changed a single mind while only providing a constant stream of TV, internet and newspaper material for hacks like me. And to what end?

Nothing.

Zero.

Zilch.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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