Grand Canyon Times

The leader of a voter integrity push in the Arizona Legislature says that she is equally insistent that language for funding an audit of the Secretary of State’s use of private funds in the November 2020 general elections be part of the final budget as the language in her election reform bill, Senate Bill 1241.

“I communicated that the audit language was part of what I needed to feel good about voting 'yes' on the budget,” Sen. Kelly Townsend (R-Mesa) told the Grand Canyon Times.

Townsend previously said she would vote “no” on the budget if her election integrity language was not included in the final package.

With a slim 16-14 majority, Senate Republicans need her vote to send the state spending plan to Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican.

After a week-long break, the House returned into session on Monday. The Senate is scheduled to return Thursday.

Townsend said via Twitter that Secretary of State Katie Hobbs “received over $3M from private organizations like Facebook for the 2020 election cycle and a combined $6M went to County Recorders from the same source. We banned the practice (of election officials taking private money to underwrite the cost of managing elections) but I am asking that we go one step further.”

She continued: “I am particularly interested in the Secretary of State’s expenditure (of the funds) to 'combat misinformation and disinformation.'"

Facebook donated hundreds of millions of dollars to election causes through third-party nonpartisan groups, the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL) chief among them, money that was then granted to local elections officials in battleground states. CTCL donated the money to promote safe elections during the pandemic, but some criticized the practice as a veiled get-out-the-vote campaign for the Democratic Party.

“People have a right to know what she (Hobbs) did with this Facebook money,” Townsend said.

A final vote on Townsend’s election reform bill was scheduled the week before Memorial Day weekend, but an absentee senator resulted in the votes on her bill, and the budget, being put off.