Arizona’s 2020 Vote ‘Audit’ Will Magnify Election Doubts

Republicans in Arizona’s senate are about to conclude a two-month recount of votes cast in the 2020 election in Maricopa County, where strong Democratic turnout helped secure President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in the state. Although previous audits found no evidence of fraud, the recount’s architects forged ahead. They took possession of 400 voting machines and 2.1 million ballots, hired a firm with no electoral experience to oversee the audit, and used dubious tactics to try to unearth wrongdoing.

Their effort can’t change the outcome of the presidential election, but it has heightened doubts among Republicans nationwide that the vote was rigged. Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who was part of a broad, bipartisan coalition of officials who helped make the 2020 election secure, has been an outspoken opponent of the audit. That has made her a target of recount supporters and helped persuade her to run for governor. In a recent interview in Phoenix, she told me she intends to keep criticizing what she calls the “fraudit.” Here is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation.