Stealing the vote in Arizona? That’s just nonsense

Amid all the howling and hysterics over Donald Trump losing Arizona – and that’s just the tantrum coming from GOP Rep. Paul Gosar – the prevailing conspiracy theory has now moved on from Sharpies stealing votes to Maricopa County poll workers stealing votes.

Just hours after Republicans’ “Sharpiegate” lawsuit was withdrawn, the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee on Saturday filed another lawsuit, contending Maricopa County poll workers “incorrectly rejected” votes cast at polling places on Tuesday.

The campaign, without evidence, contends large numbers of poll workers “consistently, regularly and systematically” took action that disqualified “potentially thousands” of votes for Trump and other Republican candidates from being counted.

“Poll workers struggled to operate the new voting machines in Maricopa County, and improperly pressed and told voters to press a green button to override significant errors,” said Matt Morgan, the campaign’s lawyer. “The result is that the voting machines disregarded votes cast by voters in person

on Election Day in Maricopa County.”

Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, called the lawsuit “a delay tactic and a distraction”.

As usual, Republican Gov. Doug Ducey was MIA, having declined all week to defend the integrity of Arizona’s elections process.

Me? I’m thinking if Democrats conspired to steal this election in Arizona, they did a terrible job of it.

Consider:

● Democrats thought they had their best shot in decades to seize control of the Arizona Legislature. They needed to win just one seat to force a 50-50 split of the Arizona House or two to take control.

Win two Senate seats and they would force a tie in the upper chamber. Outside Democratic groups spent upwards of $10 million on legislative races trying to make it happen.

It didn’t happen. At best, they will pick up one Senate seat, as Democrat Christine Marsh leads GOP Sen. Kate Brophy McGee by a half of one percent.

● GOP Rep. David Schweikert went into this campaign saddled with a House reprimand for ethical violations and a campaign treasury so empty it echoed. Democrats salivated over this Scottsdale-based congressional district and thought they had a sure winner in the well-funded Hiral Tipirneni.

They didn’t. Schweikert beat her by five points.

● Democrats thought this was their year to take over the Arizona Corporation Commission, after years of Republican domination and bad press for the regulatory agency that sets electricity rates.

Outside groups spent at least $6 million campaigning for the Democratic slate, overwhelming GOP spending in the race.

Republicans won two seats.

● And finally, there is Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes. This Democrat oversees elections in Maricopa County and as of Sunday, he was trailing his Republican opponent, Stephen Richer, by roughly 2,500 votes.

If Fontes was fixing races, wouldn’t he have started with his own?

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