The results of a much anticipated 2020 election audit in Arizona’s Maricopa County were released on Friday, and they appear to vindicate some of the concerns expressed by supporters of former President Donald Trump, and the former president himself.
As the Washington Examiner reported shortly after the audit report’s release, the findings have already led to a demand for action by a number of high-profile Arizona state Republicans.
Among those sounding the alarm is Republican Senate President Karen Fann, who immediately wrote a letter to Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich (R) in which she demanded several investigations.
Taking action
In the letter, Fann expressed concerns that the recently conducted review of Maricopa County’s nearly 2.1 million ballots “suggest less-than-perfect adherence to Arizona’s standards and best practices.”
Fann discussed her letter to Brnovich at the end of Friday’s audit hearing, declaring that she has “every confidence” the state’s top prosecutor will do what needs to be done.
“We are asking him to open up a formal investigation so that he can pursue and seek additional information, additional facts, perhaps get some of these missing things that we were never able to get, verify all this information, and take the appropriate actions of anything that is necessary to do,” the Examiner quoted Fann as saying.
For his part, Brnovich released a statement on Friday in which he pledged to “take all necessary actions that are supported by the evidence and where I have legal authority.”
The Arizona AG went on to insist that residents of his state “deserve to have their votes accurately counted and protected.”
Promises made
The controversial audit was carried out by online security consulting firm, Cyber Ninjas, and the Examiner noted that it concluded with a series of policy change recommendations, including improvements to voter ID laws and the way mail-in ballots are handled.
This led Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) to tweet that “there is work to do to strengthen confidence in our elections system,” adding that he looks “forward to working on meaningful election reform next legislative session, which can take effect in time for the 2022 election.”
However, Ducey pushed back on calls to decertify the 2020 election results, saying “the audit does not call for one, and even if it had, there is no lawful way to decertify.”
The post Maricopa audit results validate concerns over mail-in ballots, election integrity first appeared on Conservative Institute.
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