Biden wins Arizona (again): Draft report of GOP election audit confirms president's win and widens his lead over Trump by 360 votes after 6-month process at a cost of $6MILLION
- A Republican-commissioned review of more than 2million ballots cast in Arizona last year confirmed the accuracy of Biden's win in Maricopa County
- Private contractors conducted the recount and the findings and the finalized version is set to be released on Friday
- Audit confirmed Biden had 360 vote lead and that there are 'no substantial differences'
- The audit lasted almost six months and cost $6million to conduct
- Republicans are trying to downplay the draft by calling it 'only a partial report'
- Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Texas have also called for a recount recently after being pressured by Trump
- In a letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Trump told him to support the election audit bill because 'I hear Texans want an election audit'
- Election experts are advising Arizona's recount serve as a warning sign to other Republican legislators who have agreed to recount their ballots
The draft report concluded the count had 'no substantial differences' than the certified tally.
Hours before the draft was made public, Trump said in a statement: 'Everybody will be watching Arizona tomorrow to see what the highly respected auditors and Arizona State Senate found out regarding the so-called Election!'
'I wouldn’t be surprised if they found thousands and thousands and thousands of votes. So we’re going to watch that very closely,' Trump told a crowd at Mar-a-Lago recently.
'And after that, you’ll watch Pennsylvania and you’ll watch Georgia and you’re going to watch Michigan and Wisconsin.'
Randy Pullen, a spokesperson for the ballot review, said the draft version was 'close' to the final report, but told the Washington Post there will be 'updates in the final report.'
'Was there massive fraud or anything? it doesn't look like it,' he told an NPR affiliate in Phoenix.
Maricopa County confirmed on Twitter the 'General Election was accurate and the candidates certified as the winders did, in fact, win.'
It also warned that 'the report is also littered with errors & faulty conclusions about how Maricopa conducted the 2020 General Election.'
Many Twitter users celebrated Biden 'winning Arizona for the 11,789th time,' with one user saying to 'got my popcorn ready.'
Maricopa's County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jack Sellers (R) said in a statement that the findings mean 'the tabulation equipment counted the ballots as they were designed to do, and the results reflect the will of the voters. That should be the end of the story. Everything else is just noise,' he told the Washington Post.
Trump allies are already downplaying the draft report, saying it is 'only a partial report.'
Republican State Senator Wendy Rogers wrote on Twitter: 'I just talked to Doug Logan via phone. The leaked draft is simply a draft and is only a partial report.
'Tomorrow's hearing will render findings of great consequence. Then he said "god is in control". Please pray for our audit team tomorrow as they present their findings.'
Election experts are advising Arizona's recount serve as a warning sign to other Republican legislators who have agreed to recount their ballots, the Washington Post reported.
Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Texas have all agreed to review their own 2020 election after responding to pressure from Trump.
'Every time Trump and his supporters have been given a forum to make their case, they have swung and missed,” said Ben Ginsberg, a Republican election lawyer who has criticized Trump's fraud claims.
Trump sent a letter to Texas Republican Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday asking to 'act now' and issue a recount on the 2020 election ballots in the state.
The audited counties will include the major Democratic strongholds around Houston and Dallas, as well as Tarrant County, which for years has been the largest GOP-controlled county in Texas but went for President Joe Biden last year.
'Your citizens don’t trust the election system, and they want your leadership on this issue, which is the number one thing they care about,” Trump said in the letter to Abbott.
'Under existing Texas laws, the Secretary of State has the authority to conduct a full and comprehensive forensic audit of any election and has already begun the process in Texas's two largest Democrat counties and two largest Republican counties," a statement from the state read.
Former President Trump promised 'huge findings in Arizona' and claimed that he would be vindicated in a Friday afternoon press briefing on the state's GOP- led senate's election audit commission.
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