Rachel Maddow gave me a headache. It's not her fault, really. It's the entire convoluted mess that is the so-called Arizona "election audit."

Republicans in the Arizona Senate hired a firm called Cyber Ninjas to audit the election, probably because the guy who designed their technology promoted "Stop The Steal" conspiracy theories about the 2020 election. Via the Arizona Mirror:

Jovan Pulitzer, a favorite of election fraud conspiracy theorists who claims to have invented technology that can detect fraudulent ballots and whom Georgia’s Republican secretary of state recently derided as a “failed inventor and a failed treasure hunter,” will have a role in the Senate’s audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County.

The audit will seek to “identify any ballots that are suspicious and potentially counterfeit,” according to the statement of work for the lead contractor, Cyber Ninjas. Pulitzer’s name does not appear in the document. But Ken Bennett, Arizona’s former secretary of state who’s serving as a spokesman for the audit, confirmed his involvement, though he said he’s unsure whether Pulitzer himself will be involved or whether the audit team will only be using his technology that Pulitzer claims can detect fraudulent ballots.

Journalists aren't allowed in, and rules and procedures were reportedly made up as they went along.

Maricopa County already did a hand count that showed the original totals were 100% accurate.

The Republicans, of course, are probably looking for even the flimsiest pretext to pass draconian "election security" laws. And so it goes.