Maricopa County approved a financial claim against the Arizona Senate for reimbursement of the nearly $3 million spent to replace election equipment that was decommissioned due to the Republican-led chamber’s 2020 election audit.
The county’s board of supervisors voted unanimously on Wednesday to serve Senate President Karen Fann a notice of the claim, which seeks $2,833,220 for the cost of replacing machines “rendered useless” by the audit.
County supervisors emphasized the county was not filing a lawsuit against the state Senate with the financial claim. Instead, they sought to hold Fann accountable to an agreement she signed in April to indemnify the county of audit costs.
However, supervisor Bill Gates said the claim demonstrates the county reserves the right to sue if it has to “work out the payment” for the decommissioned machines.
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Fann expressed opposition to the claim, signaling the matter will make its way to court.
“This is yet another publicity stunt by Maricopa County. This shows they prefer to shower taxpayer dollars on Dominion and lawyers, rather than having an honest conversation about the audit. Machines were not damaged or tampered with and they know it,” Fann said in a statement shared with the Washington Examiner.
At least one other Republican state senator, Wendy Rogers, agreed with the sentiment.
“What a joke. No,” she tweeted in response to the claim.
Maricopa supervisors approved a plan in July to spend the $2.8 million for new equipment from Dominion Voting Systems after Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who said the security of the county’s equipment was compromised when accessed by Senate audit contractor Cyber Ninjas, threatened to decertify its machines.
“No methods exist to adequately ensure those machines are safe to use in future elections,” Hobbs said in May.
“The frustrating thing is, those were perfectly good machines, which passed all of our accuracy tests from the time we first got them in 2019,” said Jack Sellers, Republican chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, in July. “When Senate leadership chose novices to conduct their audit rather than reputable, certified companies, they wasted an expensive investment that had served Maricopa County voters well in 2019 and 2020.”
Supervisors continued to complain about the county’s circumstances posed by the audit.
“We should never be in the position that we are in, having to procure new equipment for upcoming elections,” said Steve Gallardo, the board’s lone Democratic supervisor. “We all know that what has happened over the last eight months or so has been an injustice and has really hurt the reputation and credibility of not only our elections department but our democracy across the state.”
The notice of claim comes just days after Fann said the companies hired by the state Senate to conduct the controversial 2020 election audit in Maricopa County are developing a report of their findings.
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“Confirming audit companies are preparing the draft report to present to the senate team. Senate team will then review for accuracy and clarity for final report which will be released publicly,” Fann tweeted on Monday.
A number of Republican leaders in the state, as well as former President Donald Trump, have hailed the audit as necessary to root out alleged widespread voter fraud in last November’s contest. Trump lost Arizona to President Joe Biden.
The review has been met with significant criticism from local and national Democrats, with Hobbs dubbing it a “political stunt.”
