Tim Stellers, Arizona Daily Star: “That so-called audit springs from a worldview that has long tried to limit who can claim the mantle of ‘real American.’ Anybody who doesn’t fit the preferred mold – conservative in politics, traditional in social and religious views – is discarded as illegitimate, ‘illegal,’ a globalist, a fake American. By logical extension, their votes should not count. And if their votes are counted, democracy itself is the problem. That’s one of the reasons I think it is a mistake to put any stock in what the Cyber Ninjas announced after their monthslong review of Maricopa County’s 2020 election. The review was biased from the beginning, based on the stated pre-judgment by lead Ninja Doug Logan that election systems were corrupted in a way to hurt Trump. It was also carried out by people with no experience in audits and elections and who ad-libbed their methods.”

“The fact that their count found Biden won anyway is irrelevant. And it was an outgrowth of a constricted understanding of the state and country as they really are. We live in a big, bustling United States of America, and an Arizona bursting with growth and energy. Both state and country are full of people with diverse backgrounds, political views and social practices. It’s not the comparatively homogeneous 1950s anymore, and it won’t ever be again, even if some politicians keep yearning to resurrect that era. The country as it exists today is only a threat if you let it be. And the Republican Party has chosen to let it be. That’s why, for decades, you may have heard increasing numbers of conservatives argue in various ways against the democratic principle of majority rule, or against democracy in general.”