Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich recently ordered Maricopa County to comply with the state Senate subpoena and hand over crucial election data or risk losing millions of dollars. They have yet to turn over election routers to auditors, which is a part of the state’s audit of the November 2020 elections.
The county’s direct refusal to comply is a violation of state law and can result in a substantial financial loss of up to $700 million in state funds. State and county estimates show that Arizona currently provides around $700 million each year to Maricopa county, which is over a quarter of its $2.7 billion budget. The board members are supposed to meet with legal counsel to determine the most “appropriate path” forward.
“Maricopa County Board of Supervisors is in violation of state law for failing to comply with the Arizona Senate’s legislative subpoena related to the 2020 election audit. If MCBOS does not change course, the AGO will notify the Arizona Treasurer to withhold Maricopa County’s state-shared funds as required under the law,” Brnovich’s office states.
While auditors revealed some preliminary findings from their examination of the 2020 election, it was not good news for Maricopa County or the rest of the mainstream media who claimed that the elections were “fair and secure.” According to Maricopa County results, Joe Biden defeated former president Donald Trump by a mere 10,457 votes. This became the focus of a national effort to audit the findings and ensure election integrity.
Auditors revealed that approximately 74,000 votes appeared out of nowhere, 168,000 ballots had been printed on the incorrect paper stock, and about 11,326 people who voted on Election Day were not registered to vote. They found that more than 11% of the ballots were adjudicated, compared to the 2% in a normal election.
The Maricopa County, however, has refused to comply with the subpoenas to turn their Dominion Voting Systems election routers over and has been in defiance of that order since February. Arizona Senate President Karen Fann and Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Warren Peterson repeatedly pushed for Dominion voting systems in the elections. They have yet to provide the state the requested documents and equipment.
AG Brnovich has now given the board of elections 30 days to comply with the subpoena or lose about $700 million in state funds. That money accounts for the salaries of Maricopa County employees sheriff’s deputies, election integrity, and so forth.
Brnovich listed off the data they are calling into question which includes ballot envelopes, usernames, passwords, other access information for ballot tabulation devices, routers for administering the elections, Splunk logs, network logs, net flows, and other data related to the election.
Maricopa County Attorney’s Office Civil Division Chief Thomas P. Liddy said they refused to produce the items requested because it was issued “while the Senate was out of session.” They have continued to object to the subpoena, adding that several members of the audit team have tested positive for COVID-19. This is just another delay in the release of the 2020 election results.
Maricopa County is the fourth largest in the state’s population and has continued violating and refusing to comply with the requests of the routers. If that doesn’t say something about the results of the election, then I don’t know what will. There is still a lot to unpack in the 2020 election results and we’re only getting started.
