New polling from Bendixen & Amandi International (usually polls for Democrats) shows half of Arizona voters oppose the partisan “fraudit” circus still dragging on. Plus, President Joe Biden leads narrowly in prospective match-ups with Donald Trump. Even so, a majority polled think Biden should not run for a second term (Politico):
By 49-46 percent, Arizona voters are opposed to the audit, which puts the result within the poll’s margin of error. But the survey of 600 likely voters found that the intensity of opposition to the audit exceeded the intensity of support, with those strongly opposed to it outnumbering those strongly in favor by 5 percentage points. And while Democrats and Republicans broke along familiar partisan lines, independent voters upon whom the state pivots in close elections opposed the audit by 18 percentage points.
“As bloody red meat for the MAGA Republican base, the audit is manna from heaven, but the problem is that Arizona is not a red state any more. It’s a swing state,” said Fernand Amandi, who conducted the survey. “The audit may be serving two interests: firing up the MAGA base but giving Democrats the opportunity to make the case to Arizona voters to stick with them.”
If a candidate supports the audit, the poll shows, Arizona voters would be less likely to support that politician by a margin of 9 percentage points.
When pollsters told respondents the effort by Cyber Ninjas was partisan — “it’s being conducted by a firm with no experience in the field, and election experts, Democratic officials and Republican members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors oppose the recount” — opposition grew to 51 to 44.
In a separate story, election officials in Maricopa County announced on Monday they would replace the voting machines handled by Cyber Ninjas. They cited concerns that the machines’ security has been compromised (Washington Post):
“The voters of Maricopa County can rest assured, the County will never use equipment that could pose a risk to free and fair elections,” the county said in a statement. “As a result, the County will not use the subpoenaed equipment in any future elections.”
The announcement probably reflects an added cost to taxpayers for a controversial review that has been embraced by supporters of former president Donald Trump, who has falsely claimed that the 2020 election was rigged in Arizona and other battlegrounds that he lost.
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) had warned she might decertify the machines if they were not decommissioned after being in Cyber Nijnas’ custody.
Among the most vocal critics has been the Republican-led leadership of Maricopa County. In May, all seven of the county’s elected officials — including five Republicans — joined in a scathing letter to the state Senate denouncing the audit as a sham.
“Our state has become a laughingstock,” they wrote. “Worse, this ‘audit’ is encouraging our citizens to distrust elections, which weakens our democratic republic.”
Noting the tactics used by organizers of the review, such as hunting for bamboo in ballot paper, they added, “Your ‘audit,’ which you once said was intended to increase voters’ confidence in our electoral process, has devolved into a circus.”
Cyber Ninjas announced Friday it had “finished photographing and recounting the 2.1 million Maricopa County ballots.” Yikes.
Arizona prohibits photography within 75 feet of any polling place. Imaging ballots is illegal in most places, isn’t it? But Republicans are all about election integrity, right?