This afternoon, the Maricopa Superior Court ruled that the Arizona election audit must be paused at 5 PM today to allow Democrats an appeal. The judge required the plaintiffs, which in this case is the Democrat Party to provide a $1 million bond to pay for damages. The judge ruled that the audit will proceed at noon on Monday.

6 p.m. update from Epoch Times: The Arizona Democratic Party on Friday said it will not pay a judge-ordered $1 million bond, suggesting that the audit will continue unabated after a court earlier in the day ordered a pause of Maricopa County votes during the 2020 election.

AP photo

The Arizona Democratic Party released a statement confirming it won’t pay.

“Today’s temporary restraining order required that the Cyber Ninjas turn over all documents regarding their internal procedures, which should have been made immediately available to the public if this were a transparent or credible process,” the statement reads. “We are looking forward to the first actual explanation of their procedures and we sincerely hope that these documents are in keeping with best practices as has been demanded by the Arizona Secretary of State.”

They also accused Senate Republicans of a “lack of transparency” regarding “the actual cost of the audit,” which “makes the question of posting a $1 million bond laughable.”

“The Arizona Democratic Party will not risk our supporters’ hard-earned dollars to pay off the Cyber Ninjas,” Democrats’ statement continues.

The party on Thursday filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the audit, arguing the audit violated state law by lacking proper safeguards.

“The question here we are raising is the audit that the Senate and its agents are conducting violate many provisions of state law,” Roopali Desai, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told the judge. “And it is those specific violations of the law that brings us here to your courtroom today.”

A judge in an earlier case ruled that the county must comply with subpoenas from the Senate.

Voter information could be made public because of lax security, Desai alleged.

The Arizona Democratic Party’s phone line was not accepting phone calls and its website did not list an email address. Desai’s law office did not return requests for comment.

Why are Democrats mocking Republicans for performing an audit? What are Democrats so afraid of? Why would they appeal an election audit? If they’re confident there was no fraud, shouldn’t they want an audit to prove their case?

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