A few state senators are scheduled to take part in an authorized meeting to discuss the 2020 General Election, but whether it will temper calls for a full statewide audit of election results is doubtful.
According to Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, the Senate’s eight member Committee on Judiciary will convene a teleconference meeting at 9 a.m. Monday for presentations by the Election Integrity Unit of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office as well as Maricopa County’s elections official who report to the county’s board of supervisors.
However, Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes is not listed on the agenda even though his office was statutorily responsible for early voting, which accounted for 1.91 million (or 92 percent) of the 2.08 million ballots cast in the county.
Meanwhile, committee member Michelle Ugenti-Rita is expected to have some sharp questions for Maricopa County officials. Last week she responded to news that Arizona’s legislative leaders were working with the Maricopa County board on the question of conducting another audit of the county’s voting system. Such a request was made weeks ago by several legislators.
“Another day, another excuse from the @maricopacounty Board of Supervisors about why they can never seem to do anything meaningful when it comes to election integrity,” the Republican tweeted Dec. 9.
Ugenti-Rita’s tweet was made the same day the public learned House Speaker Rusty Bowers, also a Republican, denied a request by Rep. Kelli Townsend for a meeting of the House Elections Committee. Townsend has been vocal about her belief that a full blown public hearing -with subpoena power- is necessary to address issues raised in several legal cases about Maricopa County’s voting process.
Although Monday’s gathering of the judiciary committee has been characterized as a public hearing, the agenda approved by Fann makes it clear it is simply a meeting.
Some legislators have taken to Twitter to address what they see as Gov. Doug Ducey’s lack of leadership and concern about ensuring election integrity in the state. Rep. Andy Biggs (LD5) has been one of Ducey’s most vocal critics since Election Day.
“By preventing the audit of the AZ election, Gov Ducey allows the questions surrounding the election to remain under a cloud of skepticism,” Biggs tweeted Dec. 11. “And, I suspect that even President Reagan would have been inclined to join in the criticism of Gov @dougducey.”
Later the same day, Biggs commented that he won’t apologize for working to ensure the integrity of our elections. “Every legal vote should be counted. And every illegal vote should be removed. The American people deserve officials who take election integrity as seriously as they do,” he tweeted.