[direwolf]

More stupid bulls*** in the ongoing Arizona "fraudit".

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/ele...again-n1272948

Arizona Senate Republicans’ extraordinarily partisan and controversial ballot review again extended their lease this week, adding at least two more weeks to the already delayed operation.

The contractors, led by cybersecurity firm Cyber Ninjas, had planned to pack up and finish their review remotely, Ken Bennett, the Arizona Senate liaison to the audit, said as recently as last week. But on Thursday he said auditors had decided to seek more time to review ballots and machinery in person.

Barry Burden, a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor and director of the school's Elections Research Center, said the latest extension was "yet another sign that the Cyber Ninjas are in over their heads and didn't really have the experience or qualifications to do the review that they're doing."

Burden was a co-author of a recent report that sharply criticized the processes of the Arizona audit.

The third extension is the latest in a review process that's been marked by procedural snafus, repeated delays, and blown deadlines. The audit was supposed to wrap up in the middle of May, but the hand recount took longer than expected and the contractors were forced to move out of the arena temporarily for pre-scheduled high school graduations.

During the temporary break, the ballots were also housed in the Wesley Bolin Building. After that, the auditors returned to the arena and had been scheduled to pack up on Wednesday, June 30.

Burden warned that the new space poses another risk: swamp coolers act like humidifiers, he said, which may damage the ballots or make them look different from the other ballots.

"Dragging ballots back and forth between the climates is going to change the paper," he said.