亚利桑那州的十一月选举在共和党领导的参议院成功通过后，再次成为头条新闻使用它的传票权力获得马里科帕县的210万张大选选票，以便审核总统和参议院的竞选。
但专家表示，就审计选举而言，这一过程是前所未有的——民主党国务卿凯蒂·霍布斯、共和党州长道格·杜西和共和党司法部长马克·布诺维奇早在11月就签署了这项协议。审计不能追溯性地改变选举结果，但专家担心审计本身的行为会对结果产生怀疑。
杜西拒绝接受前总统唐纳德·特朗普的各种全国性选举阴谋——这让他和他的共和党同僚陷入了困境——并证明了总统乔·拜登和参议员马克·凯利的胜利。选举结果使该州脱离了安全的共和党控制区。
州参议院雇佣了一家从未在选举领域工作过的私人公司。他们的一些做法，如储存和处理选票，引起了司法部民权司的担忧，该司上周晚些时候表示了关注。在给官员的一封信中，DOJ分部对可能违反选票保存法和恐吓选民的行为表示关切。在那封信之后，参议院取消了在选民家中进行后续拉票的部分计划，但向司法部保证，它有计划以安全和合法的方式这样做。
霍布斯说，她周四会见了DOJ，以及其他一些对审计影响表示担忧的国务卿。
她在与记者的通话中说:“这种练习持续的每一天，我都越来越关心正在发生的事情。“我们理解并赞同DOJ提出的关切，以及我的同事们----其他国务卿----的关切，他们开始听到在他们的州进行类似审计或审查的呼吁。这是一个在这里树立的可怕先例。”
在霍布斯收到死亡威胁，并被一名与极右翼媒体集团有关联的男子跟踪后，州长现在也在为她和她的家人提供安全保障。
以下是你需要了解的关于亚利桑那州共和党领导的审计。
审计前几个月的诉讼
拥有传唤证词权力的州参议院强制进行了这次审计。经过几个月棘手的法庭斗争和县监事会的抵制，马里科帕县高级法院裁定参议院可以传唤机器和选票等，作为其立法权的一部分。
共和党领导的马里科帕县已经对那里的选票进行了人工重新计票，并让不同的独立公司在选举后的几周内检查他们的投票机。此外，共和党女主席凯利·沃德本人在选举后几天就签署了原始的县选票认证。
但是，在特朗普继续对选举结果提出质疑后，共和党人利用亚利桑那州的全国势头，推动共和党获得该县复制的审计选票。沃德能够在12月进行审计，这是根据一项州法规的授权，该法规允许选民在怀疑非法选票、选举官员的不当行为或计票不准确时对选举结果提出质疑。
一家从未处理过选举问题的私人公司正在进行审计
参议院主席聘请了总部位于佛罗里达州的网络安全公司“网络忍者”进行审计，但该公司没有从事选举工作的经验。据《每日邮报》报道，网络忍者的首席执行官在其被删除的推特账户上散布错误信息，并对选举的合法性表示怀疑亚利桑那镜报。
该公司的网站称，他们追踪安全漏洞，防范可能的违规行为。范表示，审计的目的不是在选举结果中散布怀疑，而是将其作为一种方式，看看国家未来可以在哪些方面改善选举管理。亚利桑那州国会大厦时报报道称，范氏选择了一家经验更丰富、成本更高的公司进行审计，而不是选择网络忍者，以避免将额外的纳税人资金用于成本。
审计经费是纳税人的钱和私人捐款的混合体。范同意由参议院支付15万美元的费用。极右翼的“一个美国新闻网”的克里斯蒂娜·博比成立了一个非营利组织来资助审计，并鼓励她的追随者们让审计越过终点线。"
实际的计票人是志愿者，有些人是付费的凤凰城的ABC15，都被要求签署保密协议，这进一步引发了人们对这一过程的担忧，该过程被运行它的人称赞为透明。
在凤凰城的亚利桑那退伍军人纪念体育馆，志愿者的方法引起了进一步的关注。
“在典型的选举后审查程序中，官员审查个人选票，计票员共同决定每张选票的计票方式。如果出现分歧，有明确的升级程序，确保选票得到额外的审查和适当的计数，但不是在竞技场。在体育馆...目前的程序并不要求所有计票人就如何计票达成一致，”布伦南正义中心律师兼审计观察员伊丽莎白·霍华德(Elizabeth Howard)在新闻电话中表示。
前州众议员安东尼·克恩1月6日，在国会大厦的台阶上并被拍到在暴徒攻破的区域内，被拍到作为一个选票计数器如果特朗普获胜，他将作为特朗普的潜在选民出现在选票上。
霍华德说:“我们担心缺乏对独立性、客观性和选举管理经验的检查。“事实上，其中一个计票员...是一名总统选举人，他正在清点实际投给他的或反对他的选票，当地媒体发现了一条推文，他在推文中分享说，他将参加1月6日在华盛顿特区举行的“偷停”集会。”
审计员的目标不明确
有几个阴谋论在审计人员审查选票的地方流传。
一名官员在那里称他们正在选票中寻找竹子的痕迹，据称这将表明选票是从亚洲走私到亚利桑那州的。他们还使用5K相机查看选票，并确定压痕的深度，据称这将揭示选票是手工投票还是机器填写的。审计人员使用紫外线灯来搜索特朗普政府声称的水印，以显示它们是“官方选票”
一名官员说，他不相信真的选票是从亚洲运来的，但问题是“我们试图向人们解释的神秘的一部分。这是怎么做到的，”他谈到审计。
华盛顿共和党国务卿金·怀曼在一次新闻发布会上说，正在使用的程序不是基于任何既定的选举审查程序。
“他们没有监管链，不管他们公开发布的是什么样的程序和政策。他们根本没有达到选举官员操作的标准。
“我们这样做的目的是，如果需要，我们可以在法庭上提出这些论点，我们可以支持我们的政策和程序，并表明我们遵守法律，选举是公平和准确的。他们做不到。他们现在已经污染和腐蚀了马里科帕县精心控制的210万张选票。现在这一切都过去了，所以从那天起，几乎所有的事情都是徒劳。”
审计什么时候结束?
参议院可以在周四之前进入凤凰城的亚利桑那州退伍军人纪念体育馆，但审计人员似乎需要更多时间。高中毕业典礼安排在那个日期后不久，所以他们没有机会延长他们的租金。
截至周四晚上，官员们表示，他们已经完成了210万张选票中的约27.5万张。
What you need to know about the GOP-led election audit in Arizona
Arizona's Novemberelectionis in the headlines again, after the Republican-led Senate there successfullyused its subpoena powerto obtain Maricopa County's 2.1 million general election ballots in order to audit the presidential and Senate races.
But experts said the process is unprecedented when it comes to auditing an election -- which was signed off on by Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey and Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich back in November. The audit cannot retroactively change the results of the election, but experts worry that the act of the audit itself will sow doubt about the results.
Ducey refused to entertain former President Donald Trump's various nationwide election conspiracies -- putting him in hot water with his fellow Republican -- and certified President Joe Biden and Sen. Mark Kelly's wins. The election results moved the state out of safe Republican territory.
The state Senate hired a private firm that has never worked in the election realm before. Some of their practices, such as the storage and handling of ballots, have raised concerns with the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division, which weighed in late last week. In a letter to officials, the DOJ division expressed its concerns about possible violations of ballot preservation laws and voter intimidation. Following that letter, the Senate has since scrapped part of the plan to do follow-up canvassing at voters' homes, but assured the Justice Department that it had plans to do so in a safe and legal manner.
Hobbs said that she met with the DOJ on Thursday, alongside a number of other secretaries of state who have expressed concern about the impact of the audit.
"Every day that this exercise continues, I grow more concerned about what is happening," she said on a call with reporters. "We appreciate and share the concerns raised by the DOJ, as well as the concerns of my colleagues -- other secretaries of state -- who are starting to hear calls for similar audits or reviews to be conducted in their states. This is a horrible precedent that has been set here."
The governor is also now providing security to Hobbs and her family after she received death threats and was followed by a man associated with a far-right media group.
Here's what you need to know about the GOP-led audit in Arizona.
Months of litigation preceded the audit
The state Senate, which has subpoena power for testimony, compelled this audit. After months of tricky court battles and resistance from the county board of supervisors, the Maricopa County Superior Court ruled that theSenate could subpoena machinesand ballots, among other things, as a part of its legislative power.
Republican-led Maricopa County had already conducted a hand recount of ballots there and had different independent firms examine their voting machines in the weeks following the election. Plus, GOP Chairwoman Kelli Ward herself signed off on original county certification of ballots just days after the election.
But, after Trump continued to push doubts about the election results, Republicans used the nationwide momentum in Arizona to push for GOP access to audit ballots which were duplicated by the county. Ward was able to conduct the audit in December with power from a state statute which allows a voter to dispute election outcomes if they suspect illegal votes, misconduct by election officials or an inaccurate vote count.
A private firm that never worked on election issues is conducting the audit
The Senate president hired the Florida-based cybersecurity company Cyber Ninjas to conduct the audit, but the company has no experience working on elections. Cyber Ninjas' CEO, on his since-deleted Twitter account, spread misinformation and doubt about the legitimacy of the election, according to theArizona Mirror.
The company's website states that they track security vulnerabilities and protect against possible breaches. Fann said that the purpose of the audit is not to sow doubt in the election results, but to use it as a way to see where the state can improve its election administration in the future.The Arizona Capitol Timesreported that Fann passed over a more experienced and more expensive company to conduct the audit, instead opting for Cyber Ninjas in an attempt to avoid allocating extra taxpayer dollars toward the cost.
The funding for the audit is a mixed bag of taxpayer dollars and private donations. Fann agreed that the Senate would cover $150,000 of the costs. Far-right One America News Network's Christina Bobb, set up a nonprofit to help fund the audit and is encouraging her followers to "get the audit across the finish line."
Actual ballot counters are volunteers, while some are paid, and according toABC15 in Phoenix, were all required to sign nondisclosure agreements, raising further concerns about a process which has been lauded as transparent by those who are running it.
Drawing further scrutiny is the volunteers' methods at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.
"In typical post-election review procedures, officials review individual ballots and ballot counters make joint decisions about how each ballot should be counted. And in the event of a disagreement there are clear escalation procedures which ensure that that ballot receives additional scrutiny and is properly counted, but not so at the coliseum. At the coliseum ... the current procedures do not require all of the ballot counters to agree on how to count that ballot," Elizabeth Howard, an attorney with the Brennan Center for Justice and audit observer, said in a press call.
A controversy over bias erupted after former state Rep. Anthony Kern, who wason the steps of the Capitol on Jan. 6and photographed inside an area rioters breached, was pictured participating as aballot counterfor an election where his name was on the ballot as a would-be elector for Trump if he won.
"We are concerned about the lack of a check on independence, objectivity and election administration experience," Howard said. "And in fact, one of the ballot counters ... is a presidential elector and he's counting ballots that were actually cast for or against him and local press have uncovered a tweet in which he shares that he is attending a stop-the-steal rally in D.C. on Jan. 6."
The auditors' objectives are unclear
There have been several conspiracy theories floating around the space where auditors are reviewing the ballots.
One official theresaid they were looking for traces of bamboo in the ballot paper, which would allegedly indicate that the ballots were smuggled into Arizona from Asia. They are also using 5K cameras to look at the ballots and determine the depth of the indentation, which would allegedly reveal if the ballot was cast by hand or filled out by a machine. UV lights were used by auditors who are searching for alleged watermarks by the Trump administration to show that they were "official ballots."
One official said he didn't believe that actual ballots were shipped in from Asia, but the question is "part of the mystery we are trying to un-gaslight people about. And this is how to do it,"he said of the audit.
Washington's Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman said on a press call the processes being used are not based on any sort of established election review procedures.
"They have no chain of custody regardless of their made-up procedures and policies that they put out in public. They don't reach anywhere near knocking on the door of standards that election officials operate," Wyman said.
"We do it so that we can make those arguments in court if needed, we can back up our policies and procedures and show that we follow the law, and that the election was fair and accurate. They can't do it. They have now contaminated and corrupted all of those -- what is it -- 2.1 million ballots that Maricopa County, so meticulously kept control of. Now all of that is gone, so pretty much anything from that day forward is just a crapshoot."
When does the audit end?
The Senate has access to the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix until Thursday, but it appears auditors will need more time. High school graduations are scheduled there shortly after that date, so there is no chance they can extend their rental.
As of Thursday evening, officials said they are through about 275,000 of the 2.1 million ballots.
