The frightening and bizarre saga of Arizona’s sham election audit entered an even bleaker phase Friday with news that Gov. Doug Ducey had ordered state troopers to provide round-the-clock protection to the secretary of state after she and her family received multiple death threats. 

The office of Secretary Katie Hobbs reportedly reached out to Ducey’s office requesting a security detail after Hobbs said she had received three separate death threats on Thursday. 

On Twitter, Hobbs wrote, “Earlier today a man called my office saying I deserve to die and wanting to know ‘what she is wearing so she’ll be easy to get.’ … It was one of at least three such threats today. Then a man who I’ve never seen before chased me and my staffer outside of our office.”

Hobbs has become a target for fearlessly and repeatedly challenging the integrity of the sham audit being conducted of the Maricopa County election results, which helped secure Joe Biden’s victory in the state.

Earlier this week, Hobbs detailed multiple irregularities with the audit in a letter to the person overseeing it for the state’s Senate Republicans, Ken Bennett. 

“I’m not sure what compelled you to oversee this audit,” Hobbs wrote. “But I’d like to assume you took this role with the best of intentions. It is those intentions I appeal to now: Either do it right, or don’t do it at all.” 

Hobbs warned Bennett that she would be forced to haul him back to court if he didn’t bring the audit into compliance with state law.

On Friday, Hobbs told MSNBC that she believed the entire goal of those running the audit was to rock the public’s faith in the election results. 

“What this is doing is just continuing to undermine people’s confidence in the integrity of our elections,” Hobbs said, “That is dangerous for our democracy, and that, I think, really is the end game here that they want to accomplish.”

The problems with the audit are numerous, but all one really needs to know about it is that it’s being conducted by Cyber Ninjas, a firm that has zero experience with recounts and is owned by a conservative conspiracy theorist and “Stop the Steal” advocate. So not exactly trustworthy or unbiased, to say the least.

This isn’t Hobbs’ first go-round with death threats related to the 2020 election. Hobbs also needed law enforcement protection in the weeks following the election last fall as the state became ground-zero for pro-Trump activists who refused to believe Donald Trump had lost the election. Death threats are apparently their strategy of choice.