An Arizona state senator subpoenaed the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, demanding audits of Dominion Voting Systems machines used in the state’s largest county.
Arizona state Senate President Karen Fann announced that Eddie Farnsworth, a Republican who is the chairman of the state Senate’s Judiciary Committee, served the subpoenas on Tuesday.
“Today, under my direction as Senate President, Judiciary Committee Chairman Eddie Farnsworth issued subpoenas to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. One subpoena calls for a scanned ballot audit, to collect an electronic ballot image cast for all mail-in ballots counted in the November 2020 general election in Maricopa County, Arizona. The second subpoena calls for a full forensic audit of ballot tabulation equipment, the software for that equipment and the election management system used in the 2020 general election,” Fann said in the statement obtained by the Washington Examiner.
“The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors were served these subpoenas on Tuesday afternoon, and they call for the information to be delivered to the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman on or before 5 p.m. on December 18, 2020. I appreciate Board Chairman Clint Hickman’s commitment to the integrity of the Arizona election process, and I know he shares all of our concerns,” Fann added.
Following a virtual hearing on Monday in which officials defended the integrity of the 2020 election, Farnsworth said a review of voting equipment and software would address allegations of election fraud and go a long way toward “restoring the confidence” in the election process.
President Trump and his allies claim Dominion machines allowed for votes to be improperly switched to President-elect Joe Biden. Dominion Voting Systems, which had its machines used in Maricopa and in other places across the country, has vociferously denied the allegations about the company being involved in a massive voter fraud scheme, billing them as being part of a “disinformation” effort.
Tom Liddy, a deputy county attorney who serves as legal counsel to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, told the committee that plans for a recount and audit could be set in motion by the end of the week if litigation preventing them from starting wraps up. “We have to wait for this litigation to be over. Once it’s over, and the election is over, the board has much more freedom,” he said, according to the Arizona Mirror.
Farnsworth acknowledged that the subpoenas can be “withdrawn or they can be quashed” if the legal quagmire clears but insisted that issuing them now would ensure there is a process in place to ensure the integrity of the 2.1 million ballots cast in the county that includes Phoenix. A judge dismissed the eighth lawsuit in Arizona challenging the results of the presidential election on Tuesday.
Martin Quezada, a Democratic member of the Arizona Senate, reacted to the subpoena buzz on Tuesday with a tweet thread that said, “This sets a horrible precedent of irresponsible and circular logic. Claims of fraud were completely made up. Multiple courts of law rejected them all for lack of evidence and now the Legislature claims they need to audit voting machines in order to find that evidence.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Dominion and the Maricopa Board of Directors for comment about the subpoenas. A spokesperson for the Maricopa Board of Directors shared copies of the subpoenas and said the board will receive legal advice on the matter Wednesday afternoon. “I don’t have any additional comment,” the representative added.
A sample audit conducted in Maricopa County last month found no discrepancies.
Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem sent out a tweet on Tuesday morning, which went viral, that claimed a “forensic audit” was “to be completed.” However, a spokesperson for Finchem told the Washington Examiner that his tweet only “appeared to be commenting on news that Senator E. Farnsworth announced yesterday.”
In a lawsuit in Antrim, Michigan, a judge on Monday allowed the release of a report from a forensic analysis of Dominion equipment by a cyberfirm, Allied Security Operations Group, which has assisted Trump and his allies in their largely unsuccessful ventures in court to overturn the results in battleground states. Michigan state and company officials are disputing the report that said the equipment “is intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results.”
The Electoral College certified Biden’s victory on Monday, but in some states won by the Democrat, including Arizona, the GOP convened its own electors for Trump. Election law experts say these votes have no legal meaning, but participating Republicans say they are preparing for the possibility of results being overturned in court, and Arizona lawmakers called on Congress to accept the alternative slate of 11 electors or nullify the electoral votes until a full forensic audit can be conducted.
