On Wednesday, the Maricopa County supervisors agreed to file a notice of claim with the Arizona Senate demanding $2.8 million to cover the cost of the County election equipment. Senate President Karen Fann called the supervisors’ action a “publicity stunt.”
“This shows they prefer to shower taxpayer dollars on Dominion and lawyers, rather than have an honest conversation about the audit,” Fann told KJZZ. “Machines were not damaged or tampered with and they know it.”
The County spent $2.8 million replacing election equipment after County attorneys and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs said they had concerns that the equipment was compromised by the Senate’s audit team. Hobbs then said she would decertify the equipment in what was seen by Republicans as another “publicity stunt.
“I have not seen any notice of claim, so I have no comment on the claim,” said former Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who is acting as the Senate’s liaison to the audit team. “I will comment that there was nothing done to the equipment while in our possession that makes it unusable.”
Bennett told the Arizona Daily Independent in an email, that Hobbs’ “declaration of decertification/in usability was arbitrary and capricious, and was not done in compliance with the AZ Election Procedures Manual Chapter 4:I.B.”
In February 2021, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge found the Senate’s subpoenas of the elections equipment and other materials related to the 2020 General Election were legal and enforceable.
At the time, Senator Warren Peterson applauded the Court’s decision to bring an end to the County’s “excuses to obstruct” after the protracted legal battle between the Senate and the County over the equipment.