As the contentious ballot audit of Maricopa County, Arizona’s 2020 election results draws nearer to a finish, audit officials still haven’t had access to the requested computer equipment that the auditors believe is essential to see to a complete review of the county’s records.
Maricopa County officials in May refused to give the routers requested by election auditors at the moment, vehemently claiming that to do so would stand as a security threat as a result of the county’s intermingling of various departments on multiple routers.
A county official in May, claimed that the routers requested “support [more than 50] departments, not just elections operations,”; it also support some “critical law enforcement data that, by law, ought to be concealed, as well as Maricopa County residents’ protected health information and full social security numbers.
At that moment, the issue seemed to be tilting toward a standoff, with the county highlighting a security privilege and the auditors referencing a judge’s ruling asking the county to duly comply with the state Senate’s subpoena.
Despite the foregoing efforts made, several months later, as the major part of the audit work is coming to a close, the routers remain completely absent from the evidence file. At a state Senate hearing early this week, the lead auditor Ben Cotton stated
Whether the routers will eventually land in the hands of auditors or not is still unclear.
Judge Timothy Thomason of Maricopa County Superior Court on February ruled that county officials were permitted to “avoid a subpoena based on statutes that require that the material being subpoenaed be kept confidential.” Maricopa officials usually referenced the confidentiality rules in May when objecting to the handing over the material.
Despite all efforts and court rulings, the county spokesman, Fields Moseley told Just the News that the Maricopa Board of Supervisors’ “has not changed” its position since its first objection to hand over the routers in May.