Sen. Warren Petersen sounded during a radio interview Monday morning like he has had enough. Enough excuses, enough delays. And he directed his exasperation at Maricopa County officials, who are refusing to comply with a key part of a subpoena Petersen signed back in January to obtain all of the county’s elections equipment, computer support systems, voter records, and ballots.
Petersen pushed back on what he called “this crazy argument” put forth by county officials that the Senate’s contracted auditors will somehow come into contact with confidential law enforcement information or people’s personal data if given access to the county’s routers. Those routers would show the internet traffic of elections department officials, employees, and volunteers before, during, and immediately after election day.
And they could show any unusual internet traffic involving election machines which were supposed to be offline.
“I can see somebody making something like that (confidentiality argument) for a hard drive but routers? It’s IP traffic, it’s internet traffic,” Petersen told KFYI’s James T. Harris. “It’s not like you store people’s social security numbers on a router. This is lunacy.”
Petersen serves as chair of the Senate’s Judiciary Committee and signed the legislative subpoena with Senate President Karen Fann. County officials later balked at complying but in February a judge ruled the subpoena was legitimate and enforceable.
Literally tons of materials have been turned over to the auditors, including the nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in the 2020 General Election. But there are two glaring omissions – the passwords to the voting center tabulators and the routers.
Petersen pointed out that CyFir, the subcontractor assigned to handle the router portion of the forensic audit, has worked on projects involving the federal government, including top secret documents.
In addition, he noted that county officials do not have to physically remove any routers, which Board Chair Jack Sellers says will cost taxpayers $6 million.
“We don’t need them to give us the routers,” Petersen told Harris. “The auditor can go to the county and they can leave the routers in place.”
Others involved with the Senate’s audit have suggested new subpoenas could be served in order to ensure access to the routers and passwords. New subpoenas can also be used to force Maricopa County officials, such as Sellers and Sheriff Paul Penzone, to answer questions about the county’s refusal to turn over the desired routers.
Penzone recently called the subpoena demand issued way back in January “mind-numbingly reckless and irresponsible.” He also stated that the safety of law enforcement officers will be put at risk by allowing auditors to have access to the routers. Even county employees, such as elections directors Scott Jarrett and Rey Valenzuela, could be subpoenaed, according to the Senate’s attorney Kory Langhofer.