An Arizona Senate chairman on Monday announced he will order through a subpoena in the state’s largest county to audit their voting machines and software.
Maricopa County officials told legislators during a six-hour public hearing that they wanted to conduct an audit, but were advised they couldn’t by lawyers because of ongoing litigation.
“We understand that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors feels constrained, based upon the recommendations by legal counsel, in their ability to perform a forensic audit of the voting equipment software during this ongoing litigation. We don’t know how long that’s going to happen,” state Sen. Eddie Farnsworth, a Republican who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said at the conclusion the hearing.
“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.”
Some of the language was already drafted, the senator said, and the subpoenas could be issued as soon as Tuesday.
Clint Hickman, the chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, told the committee earlier in the hearing 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.”