Maricopa County launches ‘JustTheFacts’ website to combat Trump’s stolen election claims

Maricopa County in Arizona on Friday rolled out a JustTheFacts.Vote website that seeks to debunk misconceptions about the 2020 presidential election results and unproven stolen election claims that former President Trump and his allies have trumpeted since voters sent him packing.

The website comes ahead of Mr. Trump’s scheduled appearance at a Turning Point Action “Protect Our Elections” rally Saturday in Phoenix.

“Claims that Maricopa County is not cooperating with Senate contractors assume that partnering with unqualified contractors with ties to the ‘Stop the Steal’ movement is in the best interest of the county and its voters,” Maricopa County posted on its Twitter feed. “This is not the case.”The Republican-controlled board of supervisors has clashed with the state Senate GOP leaders who ordered the partisan “audit” of the 2.1 million votes in Maricopa County following Mr. Trump’s loss.

The website landing page features “Election Facts and Myth Busters.”“From Sharpies to routers, learn the truth about the inaccurate claims about Maricopa County elections,” it says.

Mr. Trump and his allies insist the election was rigged and have at times said that it is up to county officials to disprove their accusations.

County officials, however, say the claims of widespread voter fraud and corruption have been bogus from the beginning.

They say the elected leaders and voters peddling conspiracy theories about the election are living in an alternate reality and the ongoing “audit” has made the state a laughingstock.They point out that a hand account of a statistical sample of ballots matched the final vote tally and that an independent audit of the county’s voting machines and software found nothing wrong.

Still, that was not enough for Mr. Trump and his allies in the Arizona Senate, who hired Cyber Ninjas, a Florida firm with no apparent experience in election auditing, to lead the audit.

Doug Logan, CEO of CyberNinjas, previously touted stolen election conspiracy theories and has accused the county of stonewalling the company’s probe into the election.

Maricopa County has basically rolled its eyes.

Officials reiterated Friday that the election “has been audited, certified, litigated, and found to be safe, secure, and accurate” and said, “Board members supported post-election audits by qualified, experienced firms and voted to conduct two such independent audits.”

“Arizona Senate leadership chose not to hire qualified, experienced firms,” they posted on Twitter. “Instead, they picked Cyber Ninjas, a small cybersecurity company with no expertise or experience auditing elections.

“By bringing inexperienced, biased individuals into what should be a non-partisan endeavor, Arizona Senate leadership forfeited the possibility of a partnership on this audit,” they said. “Participating in an ‘audit’ with unqualified actors would put the county at legal and financial risk and would undermine confidence in our election system.”

“Therefore, the county is not participating in activities involving Senate contractors,” they wrote.