The Devil Is In The Details

REVEALED: Big-money GOP groups pushing Arizona's election 'audit' have 'dangerous' plans for the future https://t.co/i98E7HAwF9

— Raw Story (@RawStory) August 3, 2021

Let's drop down from 30,000 feet, shall we, and see what the ants are actually doing at the picnic.

In Arizona, the subpoenas coming out of the Senate are coming from a committee, not the Arizona Senate.  The AZ court has ruled these are valid insofar as they apply to other agencies of the state and regard election practices, since the Senate has need of such information to investigate and study any changes to law that might be made (you might not like those changes, but Legislatures do and should have broad powers to see what's being done with the laws).  Contempt for refusing the subpoenas,  however, is another matter.

Under AZ law the recourse for refusing a legislative subpoena is jail, and the first step in having the refusing party imprisoned is a vote by the full AZ Senate.  They tried that in February when the Maricopa County supervisors balked at the first subpoenas.  The vote failed.  Which explains, in part the latest response of Maricopa County:

Supervisor Bill Gates noted that the Senate doesn't have the votes to hold them in contempt, and the judge didn't order them to comply. He said that the subpoenas are not a "serious" request, and called it "political theater."

Bill Gates is right, and the AZ Senate agrees.  BTW, the AZ Senate is in recess until January of next year, so don't expect any further action from them on this newest subpoena.

Let's be clear(er) about what the new subpoenas (to the county and Dominion, who says they don't have to respond as they are not a state agency) requested:

Information about data breaches to the county's election systems.

Ballot envelopes with voter signatures, or images of the envelopes.

Information about changes to the county's voter records. 

Routers and network data, some of which the senators had requested in original subpoenas to the county this past winter.

Usernames, passwords, tokens and pins to the ballot tabulation machines the county rents from Dominion, including all that would provide administrative access. This was also a repeat from the original subpoenas.

The subpoena to Dominion made the same request for usernames, passwords, tokens and pins to their machines. 

Let's focus on those routers, which returned in the new subpoena after Trump raised them at his rally in AZ:

County leaders flatly refused to provide routers that were requested, which they have done since they were first requested as part of earlier subpoenas.

"Specifically, providing these routers puts sensitive, confidential data belonging to Maricopa County citizens — including Social Security numbers and protected health information — at risk. Further, the Maricopa County Sheriff has explained that the production of the routers would render MCSO internal law enforcement communication infrastructure extremely vulnerable to hackers,” wrote Thomas Liddy, civil division chief for the County Attorney's Office.

The Senate's contractors say the routers are needed to check whether the county's voting machines were connected to the internet during the election. But county officials say the auditors already received the information and machines needed to perform that check. 

The county transfers election results from vote centers using flash drives and the server that stores election results is not connected to the internet — an independent audit commissioned by the county in February proved this.

So, again, these requests are from boobs who don't know what they're looking at and don't understand the information they've been given.  This has happened time and again with this "audit."  You can't expect children to understand the wiring diagram of a super computer, either.  But then rational people don't look to children to find something simple in what is a complicated system.  To that point:

It's unclear why Senate leaders still are demanding the passwords and tokens to the county's ballot tabulating machines even though they gave back the machines on July 29, after getting them under the initial subpoenas.

Oh, and:

County officials have said repeatedly they have already provided the images of the ballot envelopes requested. The supervisors said they will do so again if the Senate can't find them.

So some in the Senate think they're going to find "new" ballot envelopes, or they forgot they've already seen them.  I know, it's so complicated, it's hard to keep track.  Idiots. 

"Outside interests" have reportedly raised $5.6 million for this effort.  How much of it has been consumed by this audit is not as clear.  I hope the fools parted from their money are happy with their investment.  Jeff Bezos got a useless clock for his money.  These contributors got bupkis.

This kind of thing was supposed to be spreading to Pennsylvania:

Separately, Wheeler said the county has not yet heard back from State Sen. Doug Mastriano (R-Chambersburg) more than two weeks after sending him a letter requesting more information in response to Mastriano’s desire for an Arizona-style election audit in three Pennsylvania counties, including York. In their letter to Mastriano, county commissioners partly cited the potential cost to taxpayers if Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of state were to decertified any machines opened by outside auditors, as she subsequently did with machines in Fulton County.

An "Election Integrity Commission" is reportedly going door to door in York County, PA, asking people if they voted in 2020, and who for.  York County President Marcy Wheeler (R) told residents of the county:

She said the door-knockers have nothing to do with York County government and encourages residents who have received suspicious knocks on their doors to contact the Southern Regional Police Department ...

It is concerning that state legislators want to give politicians or those they appoint the power to determine election outcomes.  I think, however, once that is even tried, it will raise such a hue and cry about electoral integrity it will soon pass away (unless we can get a few more Senators in the next election who are Democrats, and take the linchpin away from Manchin and Sinema, who have proven themselves neither elder statesmen nor even ready for prime-time).  Those efforts are foul, and may run afoul of the courts, if not public opinion.

These grass-roots efforts make clown cars look like a funeral process for a former head of state.