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Gallardo: Arizona GOP Senate’s subpoena is ‘sham’

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This is really simple. Arizona GOP senators have been complicit in a big lie about the election for three months now. This sham subpoena to get access to people’s private ballots is all in service of the big lie.

The big lie has always been about a single issue on the ballot — the presidential race — and the ego of the former president, who refused to accept that a majority of Americans and a majority of Arizonans and a majority of Maricopa County residents did not want him to serve a second term.

The November election was safe, secure and accurate. The county’s two independent audits will prove that, as previous audits, hand counts and court cases have done.

The senators who vote for contempt against the board will be doing more than that; they will be expressing their contempt for the will of the majority of Maricopa County residents. They will be thumbing their nose at democracy.

They will be declaring that they are on the side of mob rule, that they are on the side of the insurrectionists who tried to stop the peaceful transfer of power.

They will be demonstrating, through action, that they believe power should be taken from the people, not given by the people. They will be admitting that as much as they crow about voter integrity and freedom, they don’t really want all the votes to count or for everyone in the community to vote.

I have so much respect for the Republicans I serve with on the Board of Supervisors. They are standing up for what’s right. It’s too bad it appears there are no Republicans in the Senate willing to put country over party and do the same.

Steve Gallardo is a member of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors representing county District 5.