AZ Auditor General Report On Election Grants Finds No Misuse Of Funds

PHOENIX, AZ —Representatives from the Arizona Secretary of State's Office, Maricopa County and Pima County all said they felt vindicated Wednesday after the Arizona Auditor General released a report about the special audit conducted into the private grant monies used for Arizona's 2020 elections and the procurement of voting machines in Maricopa County.

In the 71-page report released Wednesday —which focused primarily on the Secretary of State's Office and Maricopa and Pima counties — Auditor General Lindsey Perry listed the findings from the audit and concluded: "there were no recommendations for this report."

Pima County put out a statement in response to the report.

"The report states that the auditor general found nothing of concern relating to Pima County and its use of private grant money to support a safe and secure 2020 election," Pima County wrote.

The issue of private donations in elections became a talking point for Republicans during and after the 2020 election when they were critical of grants made by Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan for election safety across the country.

Republicans claimed the grants were used to tilt the election toward Joe Biden.

In April 2021, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed legislation banning the use of private funding for elections, claiming the bill was needed to preserve the integrity of and voter confidence in elections.

The Arizona State Legislature also required the auditor general to conduct a special audit and report on private grant dollars received and expended for the 2020 elections.

In the report, the auditor general stated that the Secretary of State "spent $5.0 million of $5.1 million grant monies it received, primarily to combat misinformation and disinformation about the 2020 elections, and returned almost $145,000 it did not spend to the grantor."

On Wednesday, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs responded to the findings in a letter to Perry that was posted on social media.

"I appreciate your thoroughness and objective review of my office's use of these private grants," Hobbs wrote. "As I have stated all along, it was about providing timely and accurate information to eligible voters about how and when to vote safely and securely in 2020. It's imperative that we provide the same opportunity to provide this information in 2022."

In addition to concluding that Maricopa County spent $1.9 million in grant money for temporary staffing and other elections-related uses, the auditor general also released its findings about the county's procurement of voting machines.

"(Maricopa County) complied with its procurement requirements for acquiring Dominion voting systems for the 2020 elections and relied on federal and SOS certifications and conducted testing and pilot deployment for security and technical analysis," the report stated.

Adrian Fontes, who was the Maricopa County recorder at the time the Dominion systems were acquired offered his thoughts on the audit to the Arizona Republic.

"I told you so, I told everybody," said Fontes, who said the purchase was made through the county's procurement office, not through his office as some had claimed.

"I guess people are more comfortable making policy based on conspiracy and lies," Fontes said.

At issue in Pima County, was a $950,000 grant from the nonprofit Center for Tech and Civic Life. That organization had received $350 million for its COVID-19 Grants Program from the Chan Zuckerberg Foundation.

The auditor general stated in its report: "(Pima County) spent all $950,446 of grant monies it received for 2 uses—personnel costs for hazard pay and early voting sites."

In a statement Wednesday, Pima County said the hazard pay was necessary to pay elections workers during the 2020 election because of the pandemic —it was before vaccines were available —and because there had been threats of violence against election workers.

"We are grateful for the brave elections workers who put their lives at risk to ensure our democracy continued despite a global pandemic. They served the public during a time when basic safety protocols were rapidly changing and the number of COVID cases in Pima County was climbing," Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cazares-Kelly said in a statement.

Cazarez-Kelly continued: "Hazard pay was used to acknowledge and account for the increased risk to the health, wellness and personal safety of our elections workers, and to account for their grueling schedules. We are grateful for the Center for Tech and Civic Life Grant, which allowed us to appropriately compensate our elections workers for their heroic work."

The auditor general also reported that seven other Arizona counties received a total of $2.9 million from one private, nongovernmental grantor for the 2020 election, using $1.8 million for "election-related purposes" and returning $0.5 million.