Letters to the Editor by BOBBI SEABOLT

     Maricopa County’s ballots have been boxed up, again, and moved somewhere (safe?) to make way for Arizona graduations. It is a good time to call it quits on a fiasco, a spectacle that has made Arizona the butt of jokes on the late night talk shows. If the Senate had really been serious about an audit of Maricopa ballots, they would have found the money and paid a reputable firm to do a real audit. This "fraudit" is nothing but a grift, a fundraising excuse and a source of speechless wonder for the rest of the country. Members of the Senate are in a place where they have the time and resources to do their own inquiries of issues with the ballots, and every one of the persons involved in this election in Arizona told them that there was no fraud. Yesterday the Maricopa County recorder, the sheriff and the Board of Supervisors (most of them Republicans) stated there was no fraud and it was time to call this circus “done.”  

     Senate members have reported that they are embarrassed by this ridiculous process. The voters of Arizona rely on their elected officials to tell them the truth. The Senate failed the voters because they knew there were no issues with the 2020 election, yet they allowed the “Big Lie” to perpetuate this assault on our democracy. The “Big Lie,” started before the election, was America’s first challenge to the peaceful transfer of power. If this "fraudit" continues, the voters can be expected to ask if all of the down-ballot officials really won their election, especially after they have done their best to embarrass Arizonans, and pass bills making it harder for them to vote next time. 

     Glad to see that the Dispatch editorial on March 4 supports voting, and that “states that run elections responsibly, including Arizona, should be allowed to continue.” Thus, shouldn’t all the states be using the same rules? There is no doubt that the 2020 Arizona election was run responsibly, much of it by mail, as usual. Numerous audits were conducted in Arizona with no flaws found, numerous (60-plus nationwide) court cases found no fraud, and the former administration’s own cybersecurity chief declared the election fraud free. Once all of the paper ballots, their envelopes, the software, the voting machines for Maricopa County have been delivered to the Arizona Senate (defying state law to secure these items) and they have their opportunity to diddle around with the info, there will be another audit result, this one of questionable value. Our nation’s problem is not election integrity, which for years has had no documented fraud, but the “big lie,” started by the former president, before the election, fed and refed to the public through Fox and other media, and amplified by every elected Republican, notably Republicans Gosar, Lesko, Biggs and Finchem, that have now brought our nation to the Jan. 6 insurrection.

     The U.S. House of Representatives has just passed HR 1, which would strengthen voting rights, overhaul campaign finance laws, prevent gerrymandering, create automatic voter registration and expand access to early and mail-in voting. Arizona led the nation with the much-loved permanent early voting list and already allows voter registration at the MVA. Arizonans, four years ago, before the “big lie,” were you opposed to the PEVL? HR1 would set a national standard for elections, and isn’t that what it is all about — as the Dispatch says: “every ballot will count — -and count equally.”

     Residents of Pinal County — you could be next. If you live in Maricopa County you are out of luck, though most of the Maricopa Board of Supervisors are fighting for you. Republican Sen. Eddie Farnsworth and Republican Senate President Karen Fann issued a sweeping subpoena seeking a raft of data and copies of all mail-in ballots from the Nov. 3 election. The Senate Judiciary Committee issued a subpoena per the Dec. 19 Dispatch: “to collect all images of all mail ballots, including lists of voters, their addresses, how and where they voted and much more.” They also want (for maybe the fourth time?) “a full forensic audit of ballot tabulation machines and software.” All eight lawsuits in Arizona challenging election and voter fraud in Arizona have failed.

     Our votes are sacred, private information. Wives don’t tell their husbands, children don’t tell their parents, but now Eddie and Karen are going to know how you voted. Maybe if more people on 12th Street voted for Biden, they won’t get their potholes fixed. Maybe when you apply for a job, they’ll look at your voting record. In what universe does this invasion of privacy, violation of constitutional rights, destruction of everything American, and insult to our flag belong? Who would vote for these people? Now? So, this is conservative values? If the Trump cult succeeds with this subpoena, all voters in Arizona are threatened, democracy is endangered and voting is suppressed.

     Casa Grande, you have lit up your houses for the holiday bringing cheer to us all! Surely, you also then believe in good will to men — and women. Can we not then agree that the peaceful exchange of power is an American tradition? Can we not all agree that our votes are sacred, and ours, not belonging to the Trump cult?  

     The Dispatch’s photo on Page 3A of the Oct. 15 issue speaks volumes to Arizonans on the year 2020 and the four years we have endured under the Trump administration. On view are three sections of a hundreds-year-old saguaro, cut to make way for the border wall looming in the background, the wall built with illegal funds stolen from military budgets and in violation of environmental regulations. On Indigenous Peoples Day, members of the Tohono O’odham Nation, our neighbors, came to Organ Pipe National Monument to protest the building of that wall on their sacred land.

     We can vote for leaders that respect the indigenous peoples that cared for Arizona before us, for those that respect science and for those that love our planet. We can’t fix what is wrong with our country with platitudes such as flag, Constitution and democracy, words quick to come from Trump supporters. We vote not for the flag, but what the flag represents. We vote, not for "the Constitution" or parts of it cherry-picked out that suit our interests, but we vote for all of the Constitution and all of the concepts it embraces.

     We can vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. We can vote for Mark Kelly and a change to our Senate that has left 300-400 bills in Mitch’s drawer, at least one of which is badly needed pandemic relief. We can vote for our congressman from CD1, Tom O'Halleran, who continues to do his job and send bills for Arizona to the Senate. We can support all the Democrats on our ballot, including those representing us in the state, Barbara McGuire and Sharon Girard in LD8 and JoAnna Mendoza and Dr. Felipe Perez in LD11. Your vote has never been more important, make your plan now to get it done.