Wednesday, Feb. 24, 2021
Link to the interview: https://azpbs.org/horizon/2021/02/republican-fights-election-audits-after-audits-show-no-problem/
We chat with Karen Fann, Republican Arizona Senate President, about the latest coming out of the State Capitol as far as the Republican party is concerned. We asked Fann about the fight with Maricopa County in the election audit. We have two more election audits. We ask if they are going to continue pursuing this. She said they are glad it checked out okay. She said they have an affidavit showing that there are serious problems and those are the answers they are trying to get. She said without getting the forensic audit, they can’t get the answers. According to the independent audits, The votes were counted properly, no evidence of change votes, no evidence of malicious hardware on the voting machines, and they were programmed to count the ballots they received correctly.
We asked if this continued fight is a good thing for Arizona?
She said it is a sad thing because all along the board of supervisors said they did want a forensics audit. But unfortunately, they are not giving them the authorization to do find someone that everyone agrees on, to go in and do the “next deeper dive” so they can find out what kind of election laws they may need to change to make sure they don’t have tens of thousands of ballots unaccounted for. We ask if the continued fight keeps people from thinking the election is done properly. Fann said she doesn’t think so because there are so many people asking these questions. She said they deserve answers so they know the system is good. She said they are getting answers and they are giving them to their constituents. Fann said half the audit is not enough.
We also talk about increasing jobless benefits.
There is a move to increase unemployment benefits per week from $240 to $320. Fann is pushing it. In the last 10 years, she has run a lot of bills on unemployment comp reform to close the loopholes. She said she’s on the other side on this one and that it is about time did they do something. The $240 hasn’t been raised for 17 years. They came to the number $320 by taking the amount of inflation over the 17. We also talk about the other aspects of the bill. Fann said they are looking to find a happy balance. We also talk about a lawmaker that is pushing the idea of no government agency or official using social media for government purposes. Fann said she thinks the intention is good but the bill needs a lot more work. Lastly, we talk about the bill in the senate around the requirements for green energy.