‘Start donning your body armor’: Conspiracy theorists storm Maricopa County hearing to thwart election certification
Election deniers in Arizona confronted the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on Monday in an effort to stop the certification of the midterm elections.
The conspiracy theorists, many of whom cited the false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump, asserted that the county's midterm election results were equally fraudulent.
The election deniers pointed to numerous issues as evidence of their claims, including the fact that some voting machines did not initially work on Election Day. Trump on Election Day even went as far as to claim that the issues were part of a nefarious effort by Democrats to disenfranchise Arizona voters.
This election saw numerous devastating defeats for the most extreme Republican candidates in the state. Most notably, conspiracy theorist Kari Lake lost her race for governor to Democrat Katie Hobbs. Overt election denier Mark Finchem lost his campaign to be secretary of state.
One attendee at the meeting, which was held to certify the county's election results, accused those in favor of certifying the election results as "evil" before telling other election deniers to don their spiritual "body armor."
"Good versus evil. All you God-fearing men and women out here need to understand that and get up everyday and start donning your body armor before you step on this battlefield."
Others in attendance called for the entire election to be started over and argued in support of a second vote altogether.
"You either open your mind and get with the American people and you figure out what's going on and you let us revote with no machines, and do it on paper, hand count, in our precincts, and prove to us that this election was free and fair..." one woman said.
Lake also shared footage from the meeting on Twitter.
"STOP what you are doing and WATCH this," Lake tweeted. "This is the BEST explanation of Maricopa County Election-Day Disaster you will ever watch."
The video in question shows a man, identified as prominent conspiracy theorist Ben Bergquam, claiming that the election results were somehow influenced by Mexican drug cartels.
"The biggest concern I have is if this election is certified, the only parties that will benefit from this are the cartels," Bergquam said. "They've taken over Mexico and sadly they've taken over many politicians in America. What we saw on election day was outrageous and to say that it was anything but that is ... either you think were stupid or you're just that arrogrant."
In response to one of the supervisors telling a man that his allotted speaking time was up, another man in the crowd could be heard shouting that the politicians' time would soon be up.
“Your time’s about up too," the man ominously said.
Prior to the meeting, attendees were filmed waiting outside while singing and chanting.
"Crowd outside Maricopa County supervisors board room sings Amazing Grace as they wait to be let into meeting where supervisors are scheduled to certify the election," journalist Jen Fifield wrote.
Yet despite the pushback, the election results were certified later that day.
Since 2020, a significant portion of conservative voters claimed that all ensuing elections, at least those in which the conservative candidate lost, were rigged.
Conservatives even went as far as to claim last year that Republican Glenn Youngkin's victory in Virginia was part of a nefarious plot after initially claiming that the election would be stolen. Conspiracy theorists argued that Youngkin was only allowed to win in order to make the theft of upcoming elections by Democrats appear more plausible.
To date, no evidence has been presented that proves widespread voter fraud altered election results in Arizona.
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The post ‘Start donning your body armor’: Conspiracy theorists storm Maricopa County hearing to thwart election certification appeared first on The Daily Dot.
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