Republicans want to expand the Arizona audit â but DOJ may shut it down Vice President Kamala Harris swears-in Merrick Garland as U.S. Attorney General Thursday, March 11, 2021, at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Lawrence Jackson) Arizona's Republican-led Senate is looking to expand its post-election audit of 2.1 million ballots in the state's most populous county, while Arizona's Democratic secretary of state and the U.S. Department of Justice appeared headed to federal court to shut down the post-election exercise. On Wednesday, May 5, the Senate's liaison to the audit, former Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, a Republican, confirmed that the GOP-led Senate is negotiating with a California nonprofit to conduct a new and separate audit of Maricopa County's 2020 fall election votes.