Here is the game that Democrats may be playing with the audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County.

Let’s suppose that you run Maricopa County elections, and you know that election fraud occurred. You also know that if forensic auditors get unfettered access to election documentation, they will expose the scam. What is your best course of action in today’s political environment?

The purpose of any audit is to answer a question. An example is when a company’s financial statements are audited; the question is–are they presented in accordance with accounting standards? The question in the Maricopa audit is probably something like this. Was there was a correct tally of all legally cast votes in the election in Maricopa County in the 2020 election?
The auditor plans the audit and designs an audit program to answer the question. An audit program is a list of procedures that have to be performed to collect enough evidence to lead to a reasonable conclusion. The auditor performs the procedures, assesses the results, and then issues a report communicating their conclusions.

What happens if the auditor is not able to complete the audit program? What happens if significant evidence that must be examined to answer the question is not available? In that case, the auditor hits a wall with what’s called a scope limitation. He cannot issue an opinion because he does not have enough information to answer the question. He could probably submit a report with detailed descriptions of any discrepancies found, but he could not express a conclusion, yes or no, on the fundamental question.

Why is this significant?

The answer is that if you are Maricopa County elections and get away with withholding key audit evidence, you create a scope limitation. By doing this, you prevent the auditors from issuing a definitive conclusion on whether the tally was correct, and you fabricate a façade of uncertainty that gives you political cover. Political allies, such as Democrat politicians, the left-leaning media, and social media platforms then use the uncertainty to attack any notion that there is a problem.

The net result is that claims of election fraud are marginalized as conspiracy theories, Maricopa County election officials stay out of jail, Democrat politicians remain in power, journalists get access to those in power, and social media platforms avoid costly Congressional and regulatory scrutiny.

The losers in all this are the American people who may have had their votes nullified by criminals.