Posted originally on the conservative tree house on May 5, 2021 | Sundance | 147 Comments

Everyone knew this was coming…. The Feds are attempting to get involved in the Maricopa County ballot audit.  The DOJ Civil Rights Division has sent a letter [pdf available here] to the Arizona State Senate claiming their review of Lawfare statements and media reports may show evidence of auditing issues that violate federal laws.

Last week a group of Lawfare activists [SEE HERE], including New York University Law School – which leads to Andrew Weissmann, asked the DOJ to get involved.

The ridiculous letter from the Biden DOJ goes on to cite media reports from the Washington Post as evidence to justify their involvement.

Remember, previously the DOJ narrative was that each state makes up its own election rules.  Now the DOJ is saying, falsely, that Arizona might be breaking federal laws.

Their first concern [as predicted] centers around ballot security.  Again, remember, the Maricopa County election board would not let the auditors use the county tabulation center [SEE HERE] so the ballots and equipment had to be moved to Veterans Memorial Coliseum (AZ State Fairgrounds).   Now the DOJ is citing that move as a potential issue for the security of the ballots and auditing procedures.

The first issue relates to a number of reports suggesting that the ballots, elections systems, and election materials that are the subject of the Maricopa County audit are no longer under the ultimate control of state and local elections officials, are not being adequately safeguarded by contractors at an insecure facility, and are at risk of being lost, stolen, altered, compromised or destroyed.

Federal law creates a duty to safeguard and preserve federal election records. The Department is charged with enforcement of provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1960, 52 U.S.C. §§ 20701-20706. This statute requires state and local election officials to maintain, for twenty-two months after the conduct of an election for federal office, “all records and papers” relating to any “act requisite to voting in such election.”

The DOJ’s second issue is even more obtuse. They cite federal election law for voters rights, as the DOJ is worried that auditors will visit -and intimidate- people and places who have a record of multiple ballots from the same address or non residence:

The second issue relates to the Cyber Ninjas’ statement of work for this audit. Among other things, the statement of work indicates that the contractor has been working “with a number of individuals” to “identify voter registrations that did not make sense, and then knock on doors to confirm if valid voters actually lived at the stated address.” … these federal preservation and retention requirements for elections records is to “secure a more effective protection of the right to vote.”
The statement of work also indicates that the contractor will “select a minimum of three precincts” in Maricopa County “with a high number of anomalies” in order “to conduct an audit of voting history” and that voters may be contacted through a “combination of phone calls and physical canvassing” to “collect information of whether the individual voted in the election” in November 2020. Statement of Work at ¶ 5.1. This description of the proposed work of the audit raises concerns regarding potential intimidation of voters. The Department enforces a number of federal statutes that prohibit intimidation of persons for voting or attempting to vote. For example, Section 11(b) of the Voting Rights Act provides that “No person, whether acting under color of law or otherwise, shall intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for voting or attempting to vote, or intimidate, threaten, or coerce, or attempt to intimidate, threaten, or coerce any person for urging or aiding any person to vote or attempt to vote…”

Both issues are moot; but the DOJ effort to intervene in the audit should not be taken lightly.  Democrats in Arizona, the Lawfare group, the media and the DOJ are all working together to undermine the audit.

The Arizona State Senate should tell the DOJ to go pound sand; however, the DOJ effort is really an attempt to build a framework to undermine the results of the audit if/when fraud is uncovered.

The DOJ is making a concerted effort to assist the Biden administration in retaining the fraud.  That’s the bottom line.

Here’s the letter: 

We all know where this is coming from…