Originally published on Publish0x.
This year, the Arizona state senate decided to hire a third party organization to perform a forensic audit on the Maricopa county ballots. The audit faced staunch opposition from the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and the Democratic Party. When the forensic audit went underway in the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the Democrats sent dozens of lawyers to the stadium in an effort to stop it. However, the courts ruled that the Arizona legislature had the power to conduct this sort of investigation.
The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors actually launched two audits before Cyber Ninja's, both of which claimed that there were no irregularities. But upon further investigation, it turned out there was a conflict of interest. The companies that the MCBOS hired were also involved in the certification of the Dominion voting systems and the 2020 results in Georgia. In addition, people who observed the audits firsthand noted how sloppy the operation was and how the setup did not ensure total transparency.
The Cyber Ninja's forensic audit made workers wear distinct colors so that they only work on the tasks they're assigned to. There were several cameras from all angles to make sure no one left their post and everything was broadcasted live.
Cyber Ninja's approach was completely different. Its methodology was much larger in scale, held very strict rules for the audit workers, and implemented cameras from every possible angle to ensure no one is doing something shady. The whole forensic audit was lengthy and arduous, but the Cyber Ninjas have finally finished with the recount. But even though the results are yet to be in, the organization already found a bunch of irregularities that they were surprised the previous auditors did not catch. There were duplicate ballots, a lot of ballot bleeding (i.e. ink leaking through the paper), and poor machine calibration. You can hear about it and see the examples with this recording of the Cyber Ninja's conference with the Arizona state senate:
If that's too long, then you can check out Razorfist's video that covered the same topic, funny jokes included:
"Could it have been an error? It's possible in the same way it's possible your wife and the fuckin' plumber just really enjoy each other's company which is why they're together all day while you're at work." ~ Razorfist @ 8:03
While we have yet to know what the forensic audit's results will yield, there are already several red flags that suggest the Maricopa ballots were not counted properly. And as Razorfist also pointed out near the end of his video, the senate hearing did not even delve into the signature matching. If the Cyber Ninjas find that the signature matching, too, was shoddy, then yikes.
That finally leads us to the topic of the headline: Twitter suspending multiple pro-audit accounts indefinitely. Among them included the official Maricopa County audit account. The company suspended the accounts on the claim that the audits are "partisan" and the contractor, Cyber Ninjas, has spread false conspiracy theories. However, as lawyer Nick Rekieta pointed out, the suspension message comes off as a hyper partisan Buzzfeed editorial. It's full of ad hominem fallacies that had nothing to with the actual methodology of the investigation.
In addition, the timing of the suspension just comes off as odd as the Cyber Ninjas have just completed the recount. Does Twitter already know what the results will be? As state legislators from other states visited Maricopa County, Arizona to observe the forensic audit, calls for an investigate audit have grown more numerous in states like Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Could Twitter be damage controlling so that the results do not provide more momentum to calls for forensic audits in other battleground states? It's hard to give Twitter the benefit of the doubt when the social media company has already been caught for colluding with the Californian government.
Either way, despite Twitter's "concerns", whatever results the Arizona audit will reveal will not change the outcome of the 2020 general election. There is no rule in the Constitution that mandates the results to be de-certified if the votes were counted improperly and incorrectly. If you want to add that rule via an amendment, then you have a lot of work ahead of you. Even if the results in the battleground states are determined to be illegitimate, Joe Biden will not step down for Trump to take his place. The "best case scenario" for the pro-Trump base is if Biden is removed from office via impeachment or the 25th Amendment. But even then, if Trump wants to return to the White House, then he will have to pull a Grover Cleveland.
The overall point, as Rekieta also pointed out in his video, for the forensic audit is to investigate and see how robust the vote counting system is. Telling people to just believe the results is a hard sell hence why the public should see and be involved in the investigation process as it will help alleviate those concerns. If the audit reveals there is nothing wrong, great! If the audit reveals there are a lot of irregularities and false counting, then we pass laws to make sure those mistakes are caught early and not affect the outcome of an election.
