Friday, January 29, 2021
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Senate chooses its own qualified auditing firm to conduct forensic audit of Maricopa County election results
Today Senate President Fann announced that the Arizona State Senate has hired an independent, qualified, forensic auditing firm to analyze 2020 election results in Maricopa County.
President Fann: "There are two primary reasons we have determined the Senate needed to retain its own independent auditing firm. The Senate has consistently called for an auditor certified by the U. S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC). We have now learned the EAC does not certify auditors as such. The other primary reason is that the scope of the audit must be broader than the one proposed by the County's vendors. Our firm will perform everything we have required in the subpoenas. We must bring back confidence that the election results reported are how votes were legally cast. The Senate's forensic audit will bring accuracy and detail to the process, and with that restore integrity to the election process."
Senate Judiciary Chairman Warren Petersen: "Maricopa County has chosen two companies to audit their election. Unfortunately, their limited scope does not fulfill the demand of our subpoena, which called for a deep forensic audit. We need to do more than make basic checks on the machines to make sure they were working. We need to check the ballots and ballot scans for abnormalities. We need to look at the machines to see if there was any manipulation. We need to make sure there was no remote or local access that made changes to the results. I’m grateful the President has chosen a firm that will do that work. Only then will our voters feel confident about the results of the election."
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