Bill Gates, vice chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, discusses the details of an agreement that ends between the county and the Arizona Senate over a Senate subpoena for routers and digital logs on Sept. 17, 2021. /Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy / Arizona Mirror
By Mary Jo Pitzl |Arizona Republic
Taxpayer costs for the review of Maricopa County’s 2020 election results are approaching $5 million even more than eight months after the unprecedented effort verified Joe Biden’s victory in the county, putting Arizona in his win column.
While the Cyber Ninjas packed up long ago, and while the examination of the county’s election equipment concluded with no findings of improprieties, spending on the Senate-ordered audit continues as a public records fight drags on in the courts.
The latest taxpayer expense is the $518,000 Maricopa County spent in its fight with Senate Republicans over access to its voting equipment and related records. Those costs included:
• $458,000 to five different law firms, according to data the county provided in response to a public records request. Various county offices had to hire independent legal counsel as they argued against some of the demands in subpoenas the Senate had issued.
• $30,000 to hire former U.S. Congressman John Shadegg to serve as a special master overseeing an independent examination of the county’s routers and logs that track internet activity.
• $26,327 for the three technology experts Shadegg hired to do the examination, as well as their travel costs. Each expert did a separate review of the equipment.
The examination concluded the county’s election equipment was not connected to the internet, something county officials had repeatedly asserted in the face of Senate suspicions that the machines were hacked to throw election results in Joe Biden’s favor.
Cyber Ninjas get paid, legal fees ongoing
On the Senate side, spending has reached nearly $1.1 million, according to a running total tracked by The Arizona Republic.
The most recent expenditures are:
