Image Credits: CNN.
This is just in from the New York Times:
PHOENIX — After months of delays and blistering criticism, a review of the 2020 election in Arizona’s largest county, ordered up and financed by Republicans, has failed to show that former President Donald J. Trump was cheated of victory, according to draft versions of the report.
In fact, the draft report from the company Cyber Ninjas found just the opposite: It tallied 99 additional votes for President Biden and 261 fewer votes for Mr. Trump in Maricopa County, the fast-growing region that includes Phoenix.
After you get done laughing, catch your breath because there’s more. Trump has been telling everyone to tune in for the results.
On Thursday night, without acknowledging the findings of the draft reports that had been rippling across Arizona for half a day, the former president said in a statement, “Everybody will be watching Arizona tomorrow to see what the highly respected auditors and Arizona State Senate found out regarding the so-called Election!”
I put absolutely no stock in Cyber Ninja’s “official” results. But apparently the best they could do is add 360 v0tes to Biden’s margin of victory. That’s not good election-rigging. That’s not what they were paid to do. Trump is going to lose his mind.
The leaked report will raise some issues on the margins, like a few folks who moved and voted at their old address. Frankly, most of those examples are probably Trump voters anyway, and unless they double-voted it doesn’t matter and happens all the time.
One expert and critic of the review who had seen a draft report of the findings called those red herrings.
“The whole report just reflects on the Ninjas’ lack of understanding of Arizona election law and election administration procedures,” said Benny White, a Republican in Tucson who is an adviser on election law and procedures.
The crazy won’t end here, of course, but this is still a big moment. Trump has convinced millions of people that the election was stolen from him, and that the investigation in Maricopa County would offer the first proof of this. What it “showed” instead is that the Republicans in control of the voting systems there actually undercounted Biden’s vote by a few hundred. That’s going to be a big disappointment to the believers, and while many of them will latch onto something else rather than face reality, there will be a good number who understand they’ve been sold a false sense of hope. It’s going to kill the momentum of Trump’s Big Lie.
