By Andrew Oxford, Yvonne Wingett Sanchez | Arizona Republic
Facing mounting pressure to stop, or at least undermine, President Joe Biden’s victory in Arizona, Maricopa County Supervisor Clint Hickman sat for hours before a state Senate committee in December and explained why he trusted the results tallied by county election officials.
Hickman touted that a hand count audit perfectly matched results tabulated by machines. He emphasized the advance public hearings on the election process that outlined in detail how the voting process would unfold in Arizona’s biggest county. And while the county supervisor said he would welcome an independent audit, he refuted some of the conspiracy theories swirling around the results.
“That was a great opening statement,” Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott, wrote in a text message to Hickman as the hearing was underway, asking that he send along another county official’s slideshow presentation to ensure legislators “see all the correct info.”
Fann later added: “I am so praying this helps calm the water.”
Hickman’s testimony did not seem to do that, though.
The next day, Fann subpoenaed the county, demanding it turn over piles of election materials that would eventually become central to the state Senate’s unprecedented and controversial recount of Maricopa County results
