A judge ruled that an audit of mail-in ballots in Arizona can continue after Democrats failed to provide a bond for the costs of ending it. Democrats has been trying to prevent the audit in Maricopa County – Arizona’s largest – from taking place.
Yesterday morning Superior Court Judge Christopher Coury held a hearing on the request for a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) brought by Democratic lawmakers to halt the audit of ballots. He ordered the inspection “paused” until noontime on Monday if Democrats posted a $1 million bond to cover the damages if their case was thrown out.
The Republican held State Senate filed an Emergency Special Action with the Arizona Supreme Court to overturn Judge Coury’s halt. Democratic lawmakers decided not to post the $1 million bond so the pause was lifted.
The audit will continue for now but that is not the end of the legal wrangling. It is expected to continue next week in Arizona’s Supreme Court.
Up to 2.1 million mail in ballots from the November 3 election will be inspected during the audit as well as voting machines. The Arizona State Senate has been trying to perform such an inspection since December and were even forced to issue subpoenas for the materials to overcome Democratic and Republican obstruction.
The Maricopa County Board of Electors, which is majority Republican, sued to keep state legislators from obtaining access to those materials, for example, bizarrely claiming the state legislators lacked the authority to issue the subpoenas. That claim was dismissed by a Maricopa County Superior Court Judge in February.
Live cameras have been set up at Veterans Memorial Coliseum at the State Fairgrounds
where the audit is taking place so it can be monitored by the public.
Less than 11,000 votes currently separate Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the state.
