It’s Joe Biden Victory in Arizona Day!

We’re celebrating the end of the 2020 election with a round of bingo.

If you read last night’s report, in which we broke some big news, you’re in luck! You don’t need to watch today’s audit hearing in the state Senate. The election is over. Joe Biden won. The Cyber Ninjas confirmed it. No shit.

But if, like us, your paycheck depends on you watching this junk, you might at least have some fun with it. 

So we made you bingo cards.

Simply click the link above and you’ll be directed to an interactive bingo card generator loaded with phrases we expect to hear today.

And there’s a prize if you suffer through the hearing: When you hit bingo, text us, tweet at us or just reply to this email with a screenshot of your winning bingo card. First three bingos get a free six-month paid subscription, or, if you’re already a paying member, we’ll send you a paper copy of our public records zine. 

Since we sent out the report last night, other media outlets have written more comprehensive stories analyzing copies of the report they’ve seen, all of which came to the same conclusions.

The Republic has an in-depth story, and details on how to watch the hearing today. KJZZ got the audit spokesman on the record, confirming the draft report is authentic. ABC 15 data guru Garrett Archer is already combing through the draft report’s claims on Twitter.

We’re not going to send you breaking news alerts or live tweets of everything said in today’s hearings. 

We won’t fall into the Cyber Ninjas’ trap of racing to understand and explain all the “anomalies” that the “most transparent audit in history” throws at us on a Friday afternoon, while refusing to answer questions, from a report that we wouldn’t have even seen if not for the brave souls who passed drafts around. 

God bless Jen and the others who don’t have that luxury. We’ll be highlighting their work next week, and doing our own digging in the meantime. 

Jen Fifield @JenAFifield

The majority of local news outlets covered this tonight - either from home or in person. Schedule important news like this on a Friday night all you want. We will be there. And I'll tweet about it Monday morning, too - just to make sure everyone knows. azcentral.com/story/news/pol…

Stacey Barchenger @sbarchenger

You should support journalism because incredible reporters like @JenAFifield spend their Friday nights covering board meetings. Subscribe to @AZCentral here: https://t.co/IjzgXSBUMT https://t.co/e6QV91PpG1

We were heartened to see that Cyber Ninjas didn’t outright claim that Donald Trump won the election. And while they couldn’t quite bring themselves to say that Biden won, this is progress and we’ll take it. 

We hope that today’s hearings are not full of the kind of lies, misdirection and misinformation that have defined this audit so far. 

We hope whatever legislative recommendations come from the audit are true reforms meant to strengthen our electoral system, and not a partisan ploy using bunk claims of fraud to disenfranchise voters who didn’t cast their ballots for the man who lost.

But our hopes have been trampled at every turn since the 2020 election.

Trump and his flunkies are already firing off emails and tweets declaring the “fake news” is trying to bury the fraud again. State Sen. Wendy Rogers is calling for an audit of Pima County. The grift continues. 

The thing is, there was fraud in the 2020 election. Not the widespread, country-wide, election-stealing voter fraud that Trump and his allies claimed, and it certainly didn’t have anything to do with Hugo Chavez, Dominion or the deep state. 

But every year, a handful of voters attempt to cheat. We should, and we do, prosecute the occasional retiree who votes in two states or the daughter who forges a dead mother’s vote. We can do that without eliminating voting by mail or disenfranchising voters.

That’s not the fraud that’s the big problem. 

If politicians want to stop fraud in elections, they should beef up our gutted state campaign finance laws. 

You’ll find fraud in the politicians who know better but have allowed this lie to continue because they’re too afraid to speak truth to a populace that prefers a lie. You’ll find fraud in the politicians who actively spread the lies, knowing it will lead to fundraising, fame and power. 

Before we look at wholesale revisions to our election laws to prevent voter fraud that this audit has proven is neither rampant nor a threat to our democracy, we should look to prevent the much larger threat to our democracy: the lies, and the vitriol and division and hatred that have been inflicted upon us by this manufactured fight over election fraud. 

It’s a fight driven by one man who cannot admit defeat, perpetuated by far too many reasonable Americans.

We look forward to not having to argue over who won the 2020 election anymore. If the Cyber Ninjas — of all the Trump-supporting auditors in the world — can admit Biden got the most votes, it’s time for everyone else to grow up and accept defeat. 

Anyway, 2024 is right around the corner. 

Go play bingo.