Arizona State Representative Mark Finchem believes the Federal Government is overstepping its bounds by attempting to interfere in the forensic audit taking place there. A review, which began in March, is looking to audit 2.1 million absentee ballots cast in the November election in Maricopa County, Arizona, that state’s largest.
“The Federal Government right now is attempting to rewrite the Constitution without a Constitutional Convention. This is not something that Congress gets to do, it’s not something that the courts get to do, in fact the president can’t even do it. This is not their sphere of authority. This is exclusively the states’,” Finchem told ITN in a phone interview yesterday.
The inspection of the paper ballots is complete, Finchem says, and the writing of the report on that component of the audit has begun. The next phase will include a software review of voting machines, a review of the machines themselves and a canvass of voters.
Joe Biden’s Department of Justice is attempting to paint such a process, specifically a potential canvass, as an attempt to intimidate Arizona voters. A characterization Finchem thoroughly rejects.
“The purpose of the canvass is to evaluate whether or not a dead person voted. How do you intimidate a dead person?” he asks. “I’m sorry, I am not making the nexus between asking somebody if this person is still alive and if not, how is it that they came to vote?”
“I’m really struggling with this idea that the clown show from D.C., that I’ll call the Department of Justice, is pursuing this line of thinking that is absolutely asinine. It is absurd. And they expect the American people to buy this load of crap?”
The process in Arizona, because of its comprehensiveness and transparency (there are currently nine 24-hour closed-circuit cameras trained on the audit floor that can be found at Azaudit.org, for example) has become known as “America’s audit.”
Because of that meticulousness delegations from twelve states have visited Arizona so far to learn more about the procedures being followed by officials there.
“The other thing that I think is noteworthy is that we’ve had twelve states come here to observe the level of rigor and attention to detail that this first-ever forensic audit in the history of the United States was built upon. And I think the reason that we are seeing the leftist, Chernobyl-like meltdown is because they’re very afraid that the process is bulletproof and the resulting work product, as much as they might want to argue it, will be unarguable,” Finchem said.
“It’s going to present fact. It’s not going to present supposition; it’s not going to present assumptions. The work product will present a series of facts. And facts are pesky little things,” he added.
Joe Biden Attorney General Merrick Garland took to the airwaves last week to announce that staffing at the Department’s Civil Rights Division, with an eye towards voting rights, is being doubled. Garland also announced the Department will be issuing “guidance” for states explaining criminal and civil statutes that are to govern post-election audits.
Finchem calls that effort an attempt to shift the “line of demarcation” between federal and states’ rights. “Government is a maintenance function of each and every citizen. We’re citizens, we’re not subjects,” he said.
JUST IN – Attorney General Merrick Garland announces that the Justice Department will scrutinize any post-election audits for evidence of voting law violations. pic.twitter.com/asXkJtXzby
— Disclose.tv 🚨 (@disclosetv) June 11, 2021
Finchem is running for Secretary of State in Arizona and has become deeply involved in the Arizona Ballot Integrity Project, an election integrity initiative aimed at restoring Arizona residents’ confidence in their elections. A goal he says is incumbent on all public officials to pursue after the problems encountered last November.
“There’s a reason that the windshield is bigger than the rearview mirror,” Finchem says. “You’re supposed to be looking ahead, not behind. So the audit is a rearview mirror. What we do in the future, that’s the windshield. And I’m afraid there’s far too much focus, and maybe now is the time for focus on the rearview mirror, but those of us who are in position to formulate public policy, when you know you have a problem you don’t need to have a committee to determine whether or not you’ve got a problem.”
Asked about the objections to the audit put forth by the federal government as well as left-wing and mainstream media outlets, Mr. Finchem summarized them as a tell that election integrity advocates are “over their target.”
“My favorite comment that I’ve come across comes out a book called The Doctrine of the Lesser Magistrates. Great book. Near the end it talks about Plato and his remarks to Dionysus, the tyrant, as he’s walking through the streets with his legion of guards. And Plato asks him, ‘what harm have you done that you need to have so much protection?’” Finchem said.
Currently, less than 11,000 votes separate President Donald Trump and Joe Biden in Arizona.