Maricopa County To Give Ballots For GOP-Requested Audit

PHOENIX — Maricopa County officials agreed Wednesday — the day of President Joe Biden's inauguration — to turn over election data and ballots to Arizona Senate Republicans for an audit.

The agreement ended weeks of back-and-forth negotiations between the county and the state legislative body, many of whose members question how Biden won the once reliably Republican Arizona.

The Republicans’ request appears to be part of the party’s so-far futile effort to advance arguments that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent, despite there being no evidence to support such claims. Arizona certified its 11 Electoral College votes for Biden on Nov. 30, with Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signing off on the security and validity of the state's elections.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors had fought the Senate's subpoenas because it believed the request to be out of bounds and could expose private voter information.

But GOP Senate President Karen Fann pressed ahead with her request for an audit to ensure that the county ran the election correctly and to help craft new legislation to address Republican concerns. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, also a Republican, filed a brief in support of the Senate's authority to issue subpoenas.

“Not only has the Board agreed to turn over all the relevant information we sought in our subpoenas so that we may perform an audit, but they also acknowledge that the Legislature is a sovereign power of the state and that the county is a political subdivision and, as such, the Legislature has the constitutional and statutory authority to issue subpoenas,” Fann said in a statement.

Board Chairman Jack Sellers sent Fann a letter in which he acknowledged the county is a subdivision of the state and subject to its powers, one of 10 points outlined in the new agreement. Other items on the list include security arrangements and a provision that anyone who audits election machines or software is certified by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. The deal includes a “logic and accuracy test” on election equipment, a review that was done before and after the election as required by state law.

Eight lawsuits alleging fraud in Maricopa County's election were tossed out by judges, including the Arizona Supreme Court. To date, no evidence of fraud has been found in Arizona's elections. Fann and her colleagues hope that an audit will lay the matter to rest once and for all.

Fann said in an interview that she had no evidence anything went wrong in the election. But she insisted it was important that questions raised about the election be answered — even though questions about the election's validity have been answered repeatedly. “We have said from day one, we are not alleging fraud, we are not alleging anything,” Fann said. “What we are saying is there are a lot of questions.”

Some Senate Republicans also pushed for an audit of voting machines and the software used to count the ballots, despite numerous checks and hand-count audits done by county and state officials before and after the election.

Congress confirmed Biden's Electoral College victory on Jan. 6 after mobs supporting then-President Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol. Biden assumed the presidency Wednesday.

The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.