LibertyVoter.Org

By Independent Media Institute

Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo had heard enough. More than a half-hour into the board’s January 27 consideration of a “forensic” audit where two outside firms would assess if its voting system used in Arizona’s 2020 presidential election had been infiltrated and the results altered, the former state senator said that his vote in favor of the audit “was a tough pill to swallow.”

“We had our presidential preference election, not one complaint,” Gallardo said. “We had our primary election in August. Not one complaint. Everyone was happy. We had our general election. No complaint, until a day or two after the general election, when some folks in our community and across this country started looking at the results.”

“They were not happy with the result,” he continued. “That’s quite normal in the world of elections. Folks that are not happy with the results generally do complain. This year, they took it a step further. They continue to spread lies and conspiracies about how our elections are conducted, and now our machines are the target.”

Arizona had the second-closest presidential election margin in 2020, a difference of about 10,500 votes between the winner, Joe Biden, and Donald Trump. The margin did not trigger a recount under state election laws, which the state’s GOP-majority legislature had changed to make the margin that triggers a recount narrower in recent years. But in the months since Election Day, Trump supporters, including state legislators, have ramped up their attacks, raising the question of what proof, if any, will convince them of the outcome.

The supervisors governing Arizona’s most populous county unanimously voted to begin an audit to determine if its electronic voting system was “accurate, reliable and secure,” as the county’s election co-director told the board. Meanwhile, in Arizona’s state Senate, Republicans who supported Trump have ramped up their attack on Biden’s victory and demanded Maricopa County turn over its voting machines and 2.1 million ballots to Senate investigators.

The county has so far refused, even as Trump supporters are urging the Senate to seize the machinery and ballots. Leaders of Trump’s legal team, including Rudy Giuliani, speculated in Arizona testimony that Trump votes were secretly turned into Biden votes. Those allegations, in part, led Dominion Voting Systems, which made the county’s voting equipment, …read more

Source: ALTERNET

By Raw Story

After spending months pushing conspiracy theories about voter fraud, Lou Dobbs is reportedly out of a job.

“Fox News has canceled ‘Lou Dobbs Tonight,’ the program hosted by television’s staunchest supporter of Donald Trump and of his assertions of voter fraud in the 2020 election, The Times has learned. Dobbs’ program, which airs twice nightly at 5 and 7 p.m. Eastern on the Fox Business Network, will have its final airing Friday, according to a Fox News representative who confirmed the cancellation,” the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

“Dobbs, 75, remains under contract at Fox News but he will in all likelihood not appear on the company’s networks again. In addition to his Fox Business Network program, he occasionally turned up on the Fox News Channel as a commentator,” the LA Times reported. “The cancellation comes a day after voting software company Smartmatic filed a $2.7 billion defamation suit against Fox News and three of its hosts — Dobbs, Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro. The company claims the hosts perpetuated lies and disinformation about Smartmatic’s role in the election, damaging its business and reputation.”

Read the full report.

…read more

Source: ALTERNET

By Alex Henderson

Two weeks into Joe Biden’s presidency, Republicans are lamenting the fact that Democrats now control the White House and both branches of Congress — and the latest Pollapalooza released by FiveThirtyEight won’t give them any reason for optimism. Pollapalooza, a weekly polling roundup, finds that eight well-known Republicans in Congress have poor favorability ratings.

FiveThirtyEight came up with a polling average for the eight Republicans by combining the results of new Morning Consult/Politico, YouGov/The Economist and SurveyMonkey/Axios polls. And the Republicans are broken down into three groups: “controversial freshmen” (Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Rep. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina), “better-known Trump allies” (Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri, Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy) and “Republicans who have broken with Trump” (Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming).

The “controversial freshmen” had some of the lowest favorability ratings, including 15% for Greene, 12% for Boebert and 11% for Cawthorn. But the “Republicans who have broken with Trump” don’t fare much better. McConnell’s favorability, according to FiveThirtyEight, is 19%, while Cheney’s is 27%. And the favorability among the “better-known Trump allies” includes 19% for Hawley, 34% for Cruz and 23% for McCarthy.

This week, the House voted to take away Greene’s committee assignments because of all the controversy that has surrounded the Georgia congresswoman — from promoting violence against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other prominent Democrats to anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim Facebook posts. Fox Business’ Lou Dobbs and other far-right pundits have been claiming that Greene is a victim of “cancel culture,” but FiveThirtyEight’s Pollapalooza shows that House Democrats are by no means the only ones who have a low opinion of her.

“Unsurprisingly, Greene is quite unpopular with the general public,” FiveThirtyEight’s Nathaniel Rakich explains. “According to an average of the three polls, she has a 15% favorable rating and a 37% unfavorable rating. This is due largely to opposition among Democrats, who view her unfavorably by an average margin of 56% to 8%. But even in the GOP, she is divisive. On average, 24% of Republicans view her positively and 20% view her negatively.”

Cheney doesn’t fare well among Republicans in FiveThirtyEight’s Pollapalooza.

According to Rakich, “In an average of our three polls, 27% of Americans view her favorably, and 31% view her unfavorably. But fresh off her vote to impeach Trump for …read more

Source: ALTERNET