STATEMENT FROM SUPERVISOR GALLARDO ABOUT THE LEGISLATIVE SESSION AND ONGOING FRAUDIT 

The legislative session thankfully came to a close Wednesday and yet the fraudit started by the Senate Republican leadership lives on.  To what end?  I thought Senate President Karen Fann said the “full forensic audit” would inform legislation that could improve elections in Arizona.  Senator Kelly Townsend said she wouldn’t vote on a budget until the fraudit was complete.  The chance to fulfill those promises ended yesterday – not that they were ever sincere.

The truth is, the fraudit being conducted by the Cyber Ninjas was never about good policy or good governance.  It continues to be about the “Big Lie,” making money for future GOP political campaigns, and sadly, damaging our democratic republic in the process. 

Nobody needed to crack open expensive tabulation machines to know the election in Maricopa County was free and fair, run by professionals with decades of knowledge and a high degree of training.  Nobody needed to pretend partisan volunteers can do a better job than machines when it comes to counting dots on pieces of paper.  Nobody needed to flash the paper ballots with black lights or photograph microscopic fibers. 

The processes detailed in Arizona law and the Elections Procedures Manual define the checks and balances that make Arizona’s elections some of the most secure in the country.  So, I ask President Fann, Senator Townsend and others in their caucus who pretend their fraudit is about gathering vital insight to admit the opportunity to change elections laws in 2020 is over.  And the fraudit should sine die along with the legislative session.