Arizona State Senate Subpoenas Maricopa County to Audit Scanned Ballots, Dominion Voting Machines
The Arizona state Senate on Monday announced two subpoenas in the state’s most populous county to audit scanned ballots, voting machines, and software.
Arizona state Senate President Karen Fann announced that state Sen. Eddie Farnsworth, a Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, served the subpoenas under her direction 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, a Republican, announced in a statement.
She added that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors were served the subpoenas on Tuesday afternoon. The subpoenas request that the information be delivered to the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman on or before 5 p.m. on Dec. 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.
Hickman, the chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, told legislators during a six-hour public hearing on Tuesday that there were already plans for an audit but officials couldn’t move forward because litigation is ongoing.
“We have to wait for this litigation to be over,” he said. “And then the board has much more freedom to look at its equipment.”
He noted that if such an audit showed that the election results were incorrect, that could help convince members of Congress to file objections to Arizona’s electoral votes.
Farnsworth said at the hearing on Tuesday, “I recognize and I will state that the chairman has been very clear in saying that he supports an audit, but as long as the constraints exist because of ongoing or additional litigation, they don’t feel like they can perform an audit, which continues to leave our constituents feeling like, maybe this election was compromised. So with that said, it is therefore in my intent to exercise my authority as chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and, with the full support of the Senate president, to issue subpoenas in an effort to audit the equipment software and ballots.”
He previously said at an election oversight hearing on Monday, “There is evidence of tampering, there is evidence of fraud.”
The Arizona Republican Party said on Twitter that the subpoenas signified “A great moment in history for TRANSPARENCY & ELECTION INTEGRITY!”
The subpoenas come after GOP leaders of Arizona’s Republican-controlled House and Senate earlier this month called for an independent audit of Dominion Voting Systems software in the county. The call from state lawmakers came after President Donald Trump’s team presented allegations of fraud and other irregularities before members of the Arizona Legislature at an election integrity hearing on Nov. 30.
One major allegation on the day came from Maricopa County GOP chairwoman Linda Brickman, who alleged that she personally observed votes for Trump being tallied as votes for Democratic nominee Joe Biden when input into Dominion machines.
Dominion’s software and machines are used in 28 states and have become a focus of election fraud allegations across the country.
A forensics report based on examination of Dominion products in Antrim County, Michigan, concluded on Monday that the software was “intentionally and purposefully designed with inherent errors to create systemic fraud and influence election results.” Dominion denied the findings on Tuesday, writing that there were “no software ‘glitches’ that ‘switched’ votes in Antrim County or anywhere else,” adding that the errors in Antrim County were “isolated human errors not involving Dominion.”
Dominion CEO John Poulos told legislators in Michigan on Tuesday that the company’s machines weren’t involved in any “switched or deleted votes,” and that that any discrepancies with the counts from its machines can be investigated by referencing paper ballots.
Previously, Dominion’s CEO and a spokesman have said it’s not possible to change votes from one candidate to another, as some witnesses claimed in affidavits and in legislature hearings across the United States. They also denied being able to monitor, in real-time, the tabulation of votes and have also denied that Dominion employees have access to the tabulation efforts, saying only county employees do.
A county spokesperson didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Dominion hasn’t returned requests for comment on multiple matters. The company says, on a web page it keeps updating, that its systems are accurate and secure.
“All 2020 election audits and recounts using Dominion technology have validated the accuracy and reliability of results, confirming the integrity of election outcomes,” it stated.
The deadline set by the subpoenas from Farnsworth comes on the same day as the deadline set by President Donald Trump’s executive order in 2018, which states that the Director of National Intelligence shall deliver to Trump an assessment “of any information indicating that a foreign government, or any person acting as an agent of or on behalf of a foreign government, has acted with the intent or purpose of interfering in that election.”
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said on Tuesday that she is not aware of any report issued by DNI John Ratcliffe’s office about such a matter.
“I am not aware of any report that he has received” on that, she said, responding to a question from The Epoch Times.
The Epoch Times isn’t calling the race until the legal battles are resolved and all results are certified. Inauguration Day is Jan. 20, 2021.
Jack Phillips and Zachary Stieber contributed to this report.
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