A group in Arizona is recruiting volunteers from all quarters of the voter spectrum to observe a complete hand audit of every vote cast in Maricopa County in the November 2020 election. The Arizona Senate is having the audit conducted by an outside party; what the group in Arizona is doing is enlisting observers from among the interested voting and partisan groups in the state.
There was a previous audit by the county of equipment used in the November election, but it was not an audit of ballots. Its sole charter was to audit the performance of equipment. Generic implications that the vote itself has been forensically audited already — frequently conveyed by vague language in news reporting — are incorrect.
There is no legitimate reason to insist that the full audit of ballots not be done. The shrieking demon chorus is out in force on social media claiming that performing an audit is the same thing as falsely alleging election fraud. It’s not, of course. No audit is, per se, an allegation of fraud. What every audit is, per se, is a measure to police potential fraud and ensure against it.
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
It can justly be said that only cheaters are relentlessly determined to prevent such ordinary and sensible measures.
Which puts the actions of Google and wufoo in a most unfavorable light.
The hat-tip goes to Jack Lombardi, a Republican running for office in Illinois:
Google deplatformed the Maricopa county audit volunteer observer application.
The audit application was then switched to using wufoo, who also deplatformed them.
What is big tech trying to hide?
— Jack Lombardi for Congress IL-16 R (@JackLombardi) April 16, 2021
Indeed, the Maricopa County audit group confirms that Google de-platformed their online recruiting form for volunteers.
Because #Google chose to censor our form recruiting Volunteer Observers from all parties, we are now using this link: https://t.co/74DV4eYDOw@MaricopaGOP @MaricopaDems @AZGOP @azdemparty @Arizona_LP @AZGreenParty
— Maricopa Arizona Audit (@ArizonaAudit) April 15, 2021
Their tweet and other social media outreaches offered a wufoo.com link on Thursday afternoon. Now it too has been de-platformed.
The obvious fair-play thing to do is to not stand in the way of a perfectly legitimate audit. Going all out to inhibit or derail the audit — abusing the power that comes with hosting communications — is an act of supreme illegitimacy. If you want to convince people there’s nothing to hide about the 2020 election, this is exactly the wrong way to go about it. There is no contrary argument. There’s no valid reason not to hold a full-vote audit, and there’s definitely no excuse for third parties trying to thwart an audit ordered via due process by the Arizona Senate, which has every right to order the audit. Fighting it so hard makes these folks look guilty. Those who are convinced there’s no guilt should stand back and let the audit prove it.
