A protester holds a sign outside the Executive Tower in Phoenix on Dec. 14, 2020. The protesters believe Donald Trump won re-election in 2020 and objected to the state casting its electoral votes for Joe Biden. /Photo by Jerod MacDonald-Evoy / Arizona Mirror
By Jim Small and Laura Gómez | Arizona Mirror
Amid false claims of election fraud spread by President Donald Trump and Arizona Republican leaders, the Arizona Senate will issue subpoenas to inspect and audit ballot counting machines in Maricopa County, a top Republican senator announced Monday at the conclusion of a six-hour-long legislative hearing into the November election.
During the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, senators heard testimony from the county’s elections director, the chair of its board of supervisors, one of its chief attorneys about the 2020 election and two officials with the Arizona Attorney General’s Election Integrity Unit. They all testified that there was no evidence that President-elect Joe Biden’s win was achieved by fraud, manipulation or tampering, and repeatedly shot down questions from senators based on conspiracy theories.
“I want voters to be 100% confident, to be as confident as I am in this process,” said Scott Jarrett, the county’s elections director. He noted that the county’s vote-counting machines aced every test in all three elections in 2020 — the presidential primary in March, the primary in August and the general in November.
Still, Chairman Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, said he would issue subpoenas requiring the machines — and the software that powers them — be audited.
