The demands of a controversial Republican-backed audit of the 2020 election in Arizona’s most populous county “jeopardize” law enforcement activities, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office warned.
Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone released a statement after lawyers with the GOP-controlled Arizona Senate, which ordered the audit and recount of 2.1 million ballots cast last November, sent an email to Maricopa County officials on Friday morning demanding access to router information by the end of the day or face subpoenas on Monday to explain their position while under oath.
Insisting the audit’s most recent demands “jeopardize the entire mission of the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office,” Penzone explained that access to the information “would adversely affect” his team’s ability “to protect critical evidence, data shared between law enforcement agencies, protected private information and individual passwords, all of which could be used to the detriment of citizens and law enforcement infrastructure.”
The sheriff, who is a Democrat, also mentioned briefing the Senate Republican caucus “on the horrendous consequences of this demand and the breadth of its negative impact on public safety in this County.”
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Critical to this problem, as a Maricopa County lawyer explained in a letter rebuffing the Arizona Senate’s latest request, is that the county’s routers are used by the entire county.
“Providing them or their virtual images could jeopardize the security of law enforcement data and programs, as well as Maricopa County citizens’ financial, health care, and other private information,” Maricopa County Attorney Allister Adel wrote.
In the email, Adel also said the county has already produced every password and security key for tabulators in its possession, which was another demand by the state Senate, and noted the county is “working with knowledgeable personnel to determine if there is a safe manner to get the Senate the information about the November 3, 2020 election without jeopardizing this other information.”
Adel concluded, “We have been unable to do that by close of business today.”
The emails between lawyers for the state Senate and Maricopa County were shared on Twitter by 12 News reporter Brahm Resnik.
The audit, which started on April 23 and is centered at Veterans Memorial Coliseum, followed a legal battle between Maricopa County (which includes Phoenix) and the GOP-led state Senate, during which a judge found the Arizona Legislature’s subpoenas of election materials and equipment to be “legal and enforceable.”
Ken Bennett, a former Republican secretary of state in Arizona who is serving as the Republican-led state Senate’s audit liaison, told Just the News that a subpoena demanded “access or control of all routers and tabulators … used in connection with the administration of the 2020 election,” along with “the public IP of the [routers].”
After Democrats filed a lawsuit to try and stop the audit, an effort that led to a settlement this week, Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and the U.S. Justice Department sent letters raising concerns about the process.
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann said in a letter to the DOJ that the plan to contact residents about their voting history is “indefinitely” on hold. She said the decision was made “weeks ago,” although it was not revealed until after the Justice Department said the canvass could violate federal laws that bar voter intimidation. Fann added that if a canvass is deemed necessary by the state Senate, “its vendor will implement detailed requirements to ensure that the canvassing is conducted in a manner that complies fully with the commands of the United States Constitution and federal and state civil rights laws,” and she included a list of conditions.
Pamela Karlan, the principal deputy assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, also raised concerns about ballots being preserved in accordance with federal law. Fann said the audit is “governed by comprehensive and rigorous security protocols that will fully preserve all physical and electronic ballots, tabulation systems, and other election materials.”
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The hand recount, which focuses on the presidential election and U.S. Senate contest, will not change the results, as officials in the state have already certified President Joe Biden’s victory and others. Fann has insisted that the audit is meant to restore trust in the system and influence potential changes to the law.
Democrats argue that the results from two previous audits, conducted for the GOP-majority Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, showed no irregularities in the county’s 2020 election, calling it a “dangerous fishing expedition” that could feed conspiracy theories about the contest.
Former President Donald Trump has celebrated the audit, insisting it will show Arizona was a “scam election” state. Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based firm, was hired to lead the audit.
