A Republican candidate for Secretary of State traveled to Arizona, where a high-profile audit of the 2020 general election results is taking place.
“Kristina Karamo, candidate to be Michigan’s next Secretary of State, is the only person from Michigan to make the trip to Maricopa County, AZ to see first-hand how Arizona’s audit of the 2020 election is being conducted,” a Karamo press release said.
President Joe Biden won that state by just more than 10,000 votes, and the state’s results were disputed by former President Donald J. Trump.
“Ms. Karamo, a private citizen and announced candidate, took the trip,” the press release continued. “There she met with various Arizona leaders involved with the audit process and toured the area used in the audit process.”
The press release also said that the state of Michigan has not sent any government officials to observe the audit. Biden won Michigan by a thin and contested margin, too.
In an interview with One America News, Karamo detailed her experience in Arizona.
“I really liked the transparency,” she said. “I think it’s really critical for the public to know, irrespective of political party, that this audit is being ran with integrity. I also like all the checks and balances, the absolute chain of custody – that’s what’s critical. That’s what’s needed in our election process for people to sign in and out every time they touch a key artifact of the election. That was wonderful.”
Karamo views the audits as a way to bolster confidence in America’s election system as a whole.
“The fact that they had the microscopes examining the paper, I mean that was really really remarkable because voters in Michigan have lost confidence in the election system,” she continued. “In the state of Michigan we have about eight million people registered to vote and only 5.5 million voted in the last election. People aren’t going to register to vote unless they plan on voting. People aren’t voting because they don’t have confidence in the election systems.”
She said she wants to “establish an election system that proves its own integrity.”
“We are encouraging our state legislators to do the exact same thing that we see in Arizona, in Michigan,” Karamo said.
She also stressed that audits are not about partisanship, but rather about protecting our Republic, and ensuring that those who represent Americans in Washington were truly the ones chosen by the electorate, regardless of political party.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a contributor at The Michigan Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Kristina Karamo” by Kristina Karamo.Â