Senate to issue new subpoenas for election audit
Some of the 2.1 million ballots cast during the 2020 election, are brought in for recounting at a 2020 election ballot audit ordered by the Republican lead Arizona Senate at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, during a news conference Thursday, April 22, 2021, in Phoenix. AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
Senate Republican leaders are setting the stage for a new legal fight with Maricopa County.
Kory Langhofer, the attorney for the Senate, said he will be issuing subpoenas today for all five Maricopa County supervisors, demanding they appear to explain why they won’t surrender certain equipment and information for review as part of the audit of the 2020 General Election returns. Langhofer also said the Senate wants to hear from Scott Jarrett, the county’s director of election day and emergency voting.
By Caitlin Huey-Burns, Adam Brewster
May 9, 2021 / 7:06 AM / CBS News Arizona GOP launches recount of ballots
More than six months after his defeat in the November election, former President Trump is still claiming victory, calling the election the big lie, despite several recounts and dozens of unsuccessful lawsuits that say otherwise.
Although every state has certified its results, the Republican-controlled state Senate in Arizona has undertaken a full hand recount and audit of the ballots and voting machines in Maricopa, the state s largest county, a move that has been frequently praised by the former president. President Biden won the county, a longtime Republican stronghold, by 45,109 votes, and he won the state by 10,457 votes. At the same time, Democrats also picked up a U.S. Senate seat from Arizona.
7 May 2021
Hannah Klain, daughter of President Joe Biden’s powerful Chief of Staff Ron Klain, recently signed a letter urging the Justice Department to deploy federal monitors to monitor the Arizona State Senate’s audit of 2020 presidential votes in Maricopa County.
The letter, from three groups the Brennan Center for Justice, the Leadership Conference Education Fund, and Protect Democracy was sent last week to the Justice Department, expressing concern that the auditors are “engaged in ongoing and imminent violations of federal voting and election laws.”
“[W]e request that you send federal monitors as soon as practicable to the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum,” the letter said. “Ballots that are protected under federal law are in imminent danger of being subject to unlawful voter intimidation as a result of flawed audit procedure.”
Arizona Republicans push back against Justice Department concerns, setting up possible clash over audit
By Rosalind S. Helderman The Washington Post,Updated May 6, 2021, 9:57 p.m.
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Maricopa County ballots cast in the 2020 general election are examined and recounted by contractors working for Florida-based company, Cyber Ninjas.Matt York/Associated Press
Arizona officials involved with a Republican-commissioned recount of the November presidential election in the stateâs largest county on Thursday brushed off concerns raised by the Justice Department this week, raising the possibility of a clash between state and federal authorities over the audit.
Pamela S. Karlan, who heads the Justice Department s civil rights division, wrote a letter to the president of the Arizona state Senate on Wednesday suggesting that the recount of nearly 2.1 million ballots in Maricopa County by a private contractor may not comply with federal law, which requires that ballots be s