A final report release and a hearing is scheduled for Friday afternoon in Arizona.
The Arizona review has been marred by significant problems, stretching on for months past its initial expected runtime, while seemingly improvising processes on the fly and playing into conspiracy theories that included checking for bamboo fibers in ballots. The effort was also significantly funded by allies of Trump.
Election officials in the state and outside experts have opposed it nearly every step of the way, and derided the “audit” label supporters attached to it. Logan, who is leading the effort, has echoed some of Trump’s conspiracy theories, and has no discernible experience running or reviewing elections.
Nevertheless, the near-matching tally will likely not stop Trump and his supporters from further attacking America’s democratic system. The draft report claimed irregularities with tens of thousands of ballots, and suggested changes to the state’s election law “that tightens up the election process to provide additional certainty to elections going forward.”
“Everybody will be watching Arizona tomorrow to see what the highly respected auditors and Arizona State Senate found out regarding the so-called Election!” the former president said in a statement, hours before the draft report was made public.
The Arizona effort has also inspired copycat reviews or investigations in states across the country, including efforts backed by GOP legislative leaders in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Most recently, Texas’ secretary of state’s office announced Thursday night it would be reviewing the 2020 election in four of the state’s most populous counties, after Trump publicly released a letter to GOP Gov. Greg Abbott calling for one earlier in the day.
Trump has also pressured Republican officials across the country to tout his lies about the election, often lashing out against Republican election officials who said their elections were not rigged. He has backed Republicans seeking to become their state’s secretary of state who have parroted those falsehoods — including state Rep. Mark Finchem, a major proponent of the review in Maricopa.
