‘Free, fair and accurate’: Arizona Republicans admit Joe Biden won the state fair and square

Arizona Republicans have admitted that Joe Biden beat Donald Trump in a “free, fair and accurate election” in the state in 2020.

Election officials from Maricopa County, the state’s most populous, told Congress that a review of 2.1m ballots did not find the debunked widespread fraud claimed by the defeated one-term president.

Those GOP officials testified to the House Oversight Committee that Mr Biden beat Mr Trump by 45,000 votes in the county, and overall won the state and its crucial 11 electoral votes by more than 10,000 votes.

“The election of November 3rd, 2020, in Maricopa County was free, fair and accurate,” said Jack Sellers, chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

“Maricopa County is the second-largest voting district in the United States of America. I sit before you today as a Republican who was voted into office in November of 2020.” Mr Sellers was elected to a four-year term.

And the board’s vice chairman, Bill Gates, warned about the repercussions for democracy if politicians refused to accept electoral results.

“This is without a doubt the biggest threat to our democracy in my lifetime,” said Mr Gates.

“If elected officials continue to choose party over truth, then these procedures are going to continue on these privately funded, government-backed attacks on legitimate elections.

“I dreamed of one day going to a nation that was trying to build a democracy, and help them out. Perhaps a former Soviet republic like Belarus or Tajikistan. I never could have imagined that I would be doing that work here in the United States.”

The officials were called to testify after Arizona’s state Senate hired Florida firm Cyber Ninja to carry out a review of the county’s election results.

And in the end that review actually found 350 more votes for Mr Biden.

The tax-payer funded review cost the county $400,000 and Doug Logan, the chief executive of Cyber Ninjas, declined an invitation to appear before the committee.

Congressman Jamie Raskin, a Democrat from Maryland, told the committee that even the GOP election leaders in Maricopa County believed they had overseen “the most secure, verified election in our history”.

“They have told us that the attacks on the election are a scam to keep people angry and donating,” said Mr Raskin.

“They have said that the attacks on the election are lies. They have explained to us that the elections in Arizona were free, fair and accurate and that Joe Biden won by more than 45,000 votes.”

“And yet still, we have people today in this hearing trying to perpetrate the ‘big lie,’ which their own concocted audit itself discredited.”

Mr Raskin then asked lawmaker Andy Biggs, a Republican from Arizona, who had won the 2020 election.

“We don’t know,” the congressman replied as he still refused to acknowledge Mr Biden’s victory.