In many ways, Maricopa County in Arizona is currently the center of the storm when it comes to settling the score about what happened on Nov. 3. Since April 23, a first of its kind ever forensic audit has been in progress. The Arizona State Senate and the Maricopa Board of Supervisors (BOS) have been duking it out since the election. Secretary of State Katie Hobbs also seems to be doing everything in her power to shut it down or, at a minimum, discredit it.
Subpoenas, court battles, special meetings, and contentious letters have been flying back and forth among all parties over passwords, venues, auditors, and whether the audit should have been done in the first place.
Ongoing and multiple battles are still being waged and/or litigated:
- Hobbs has written a letter demanding the current equipment being audited be decommissioned.
- The contract between Dominion and the County BOS suddenly appeared on the internet and is now being scrutinized.
- A 274-page complaint has been filed by American Oversight demanding that Senate President Karen Fann be required to turn over all requested public records surrounding the Senate's Cyber Ninja's audit/recount of the Nov. 2020 election in Maricopa County.
- Senate President Fann allegedly received a mailed letter with "unidentified white powder" inside.
- Politicians, current and former, continue to lob back and forth their contentious opinions about the ongoing forensic audit.
On Thursday, Hobbs sent the letter stating, because the auditors hired by the Senate are amateurs and uncertified, she is requesting that the equipment used in the Nov. 3 election never be used again for Arizona elections.
Hobbs also cites chain of custody issues, many of which could have been avoided had the Maricopa County BOS allowed the audit to remain at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC) with the Senate proposed bipartisan officials present. Both were turned down by the BOS and Hobbs. Hobbs admitted in the letter that decommissioning the equipment would cost the county and its taxpayers dearly.
Additionally, a YouTube interview posted on the WeThePeople AZ Alliance channel with a local Certified Information Systems Security Professional named Aaron Wagner spoke about a newly published contract between the BOS and Dominion Voting Machines. He seeks to explain, in simple terms, some of the claims about admin passwords and routers that have been hotly debated in the past few weeks.
Twitter user CChampion also analyzes the contract. Using the contract to document his discussion, he allegedly debunks and clarifies several issues that have caused a great deal of debate between the BOS and the Senate. For example, ballots, in fact, do not contain sensitive voter information—as confirmed by Senate Liaison Ken Bennett.
Unless the county did not follow the contract, none of the equipment (routers) "support or connect to other county infrastructure." Allegedly, the county has no control over pertinent information on the machines and is, therefore, unable to examine the machines for vulnerabilities— only Dominion has access to that information, according to the contract.
It seems that access to the software has been held in escrow in Katie Hobb's account, NOT the account associated with Maricopa County. She cannot access it without Dominion's express permission.
American Oversight, the organization that filed the above-mentioned complaint, seems to be transparently against the audit and openly anti-Trump—claiming it is a partisan effort. The site has posted numerous documents and news articles criticizing the Arizona audit. It claims that its mission is to uncover the facts and hold the "government accountable."
Arizona Audit/American Oversight
An election Integrity and Security bill, SB1241, introduced by Senator Kelly Townsend, will be heard on May 25. The bill addresses issues like election security, election privacy for the voter, and prevention of duplicate voting.
The Arizona audit is currently paused because of previous bookings for graduations being held this week in the Colosseum. It is set to resume on May 24. The contract for the audit has been extended through June 30, per reporting by UncoverDC.
