A voter displays their mail-in ballot envelope at an early voting location in Phoenix earlier in October/ Robyn Beck/AFP/Getty Images
By Andrew Oxford | Arizona Republic
Republican state senators have filed a lawsuit asking a judge to force Maricopa County to comply with subpoenas the Arizona Legislature sent local officials last week demanding they turn over copies of every mail-in ballot counted during the election along with a pile of other records.
The lawsuit filed by Senate President Karen Fann and Sen. Eddie Farnsworth is just the newest twist in a legal standoff between local officials and legislators, who have said they want to undertake their own audit of Maricopa County’s election, even after a perfect hand count audit and after challenges to the results withered under scrutiny in court.
Members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors have said they would support an audit of the election but also have said that ongoing litigation prohibits the sort of access to election equipment that some lawmakers have demanded.
Farnsworth, a Republican from Gilbert and chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, sent two subpoenas to the county last week, describing them as a way of ensuring the Legislature could get an audit of the election results.
