AZ Senate Leader Takes Audit Fight with Maricopa County to Whole New Level, Brings in Top Law Enforcement Official
Arizona Senate Majority Whip Sonny Borrelli has officially requested Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich investigate the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors’ refusal to comply with a subpoena issued by Senate leadership overseeing the November 2020 election audit.
The subpoena issued by Arizona Senate President Karen Fann and Arizona Senate Judiciary Chairman Warren Peterson last week sought information and access regarding six matters, including access to the election routers as well as “user names, passwords, pins and/or security keys or tokens required to access, or otherwise relating to, any and all ballot tabulation devices used in connection with the November 3, 2020 general election.”
Maricopa County used Dominion Voting Systems’ ballot tabulation devices.
Access to the routers and tabulation device passwords were both listed in the original subpoena issued in December and reissued in January, but Maricopa County and Dominion have not complied.
In February, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Thomason ruled the Arizona Senate has “broad constitutional power” to subpoena election-related materials, including those items listed in the subpoena.
Fann and Petersen’s July 26 subpoena set a deadline of Monday, Aug. 2, at 1 p.m.
“The supervisors are acting as if they are above the law, and it is an insult to the citizens of our state,” Borrelli said in a Tuesday statement.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Statement from Senate Majority Whip @SonnyBorrelli #AZSenate pic.twitter.com/zY9jA7qDtD
— AZSenateRepublicans (@AZSenateGOP) August 3, 2021
“Yesterday the Board of Supervisors ignored the subpoena deadline and failed to provide the routers used in the November election,” he added. “They failed to provide passwords and security keys required to access tabulation devices. They failed to provide splunk logs and similar data.”
“The level of disrespect and contempt from the supervisors toward Senate leadership and Arizona voters is appalling.”
The splunk logs show the activity through the routers and would be a means to determine if anything abnormal happened regarding the vote tabulators and other equipment on or around Election Day.
Auditor Ben Cotton, the founder of CyFIR LLC, testified at a July 15 hearing that access to the routers is the most important item he needs to complete the audit.
“We know through public records, public statements that an element of the election system was actually compromised or breached during the course of the November 2020 election,” Cotton said. “The registration server … was breached.”
The cyber expert further testified that while the county said the hacker only gained access to publicly available voter registration data, he may have also easily gained access further into the voting system itself.
Borrelli requested Brnovich investigate Maricopa County’s refusal to give access to the routers, voting machines passwords and splunk logs.
The 1487 request to the Arizona Attorney General has been filed against the Maricopa Board of Supervisors by @SonnyBorrelli on behalf of the Arizona Senate. I support this and hope the @GeneralBrnovich lays the smack down. Throw the book at them! pic.twitter.com/vJkfoTvozp
— Wendy Rogers (@WendyRogersAZ) August 3, 2021
In a Monday letter to the Arizona Senate, the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office outright rejected giving access to the routers used during the election, out of concern that compromising information related to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office or other personal data of Maricopa County residents would be revealed.
Cotton testified at a May hearing, “That data should not exist on that router, period. So to state that it could be compromised would be an inaccurate statement or an inaccurate portrayal of what the data is on the router.”
He addressed the issue again at the July 15 hearing, explaining that routers are like mail carriers delivering packets of information to addresses but do not access what is inside.
“What you don’t have is the actual content or the letter that’s contained in the envelope within the router itself,” Cotton said.
In a Monday statement, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chairman Jack Sellers accused the Arizona Senate Republican leadership of denying reality regarding the November election.
“Maricopa County long ago provided to the Arizona Senate everything competent auditors would need to affirm the accuracy and security of the November General Election,” he argued.
“The latest Senate demands are an attempt to distract attention from their botched audit and conspiracy-obsessed contractors.”
The Associated Press reported that Catherine Mejia, a spokeswoman for Brnovich, confirmed receipt of Borrelli’s complaint but did not comment further.
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