AZ Senate Liaison Blames Obstruction From Maricopa County Supervisors and Recorder For Election Audit Results Delay

Ken Bennett, Arizona’s Senate’s liaison for the Maricopa County election audit, blamed obstruction from the county’s Supervisors and Recorder for the delay in results from the audit.

A tweet earlier from the official account of the Senate liaison for the audit declared “The main reason the forensic audit is taking 2.5 months is because Maricopa County Supervisors and Recorder have obstructed the audit and refused to cooperate.”

Arizona Republican State Senator Wendy Rogers quote tweeted the statement and added, “Boom. Be mad at them, not the ones trying to get it done.”

Boom. Be mad at them, not the ones trying to get it done. https://t.co/FcYxAVmH4z

— Wendy Rogers (@WendyRogersAZ) July 2, 2021

OAN reported yesterday that Arizona election audit spokesman Randy Pullen said the state senate will subpoena the routers and passwords that are still being withheld by election officials.

Pullen announced the state’s plans to issue the subpoena on Wednesday and noted it has been difficult to complete the audit without information on the routers and passwords.

“We have none of that information has been provided to us, and it’s something that the Senate will have to go back to the county and request those items. So again, it’s very difficult to complete the audit without getting that information,” Pullen explained.

State senators will determine the timeline for the examination of electronic equipment that was used during the 2020 elections in Arizona according to Pullen, who confirmed the ballot count is now complete, but some electronic data is still raising questions.

Rogers said about the news, “Subpoena inbound! The Arizona Senate is still acting even after sine die.”

Subpoena inbound! The Arizona Senate is still acting even after sine die.

"He announced the state’s plans to issue the subpoena on Wednesday while noting it has been difficult to complete the audit without information on the routers and passwords."https://t.co/ylkLkAzEo9

— Wendy Rogers (@WendyRogersAZ) July 2, 2021

OAN reported:

“A few minor things still need to be done with respect to some software additions they made,” Pullen stated. “We got some additional information for the county. Apparently there was a difference on how many duplicate ballots there were per batch, so they gave us a new list and so we had to create software that took that data and compared it to our data to deal with the duplicate ballots.”

The state Senate is expected to issue subpoenas in coming days. Additionally, Maricopa County recently announced plans to replace all of its subpoenaed election equipment while noting the county will “never use compromised equipment that could pose a risk to free and fair elections.”

While Arizona Republicans believe it is a step in the right direction, the replacement of equipment is not going to undo the mistakes already made. They argue if the machines are not able to undergo a forensic audit to verify the presidential election results then they never should have been approved to be used in an election in the first place.