Grand Canyon Times

The media was premature in reporting that former Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett was resigning as liaison for the Senate Republicans in the forensics audit of the Maricopa County 2020 election results, GOP Chairwoman Dr. Kelli Ward, said in a videotaped statement.

The media “has breathlessly reported that Ken Bennett was barred from the building [where the audit is taking place] and even removed as liaison, but he told me that he continues working closely with [Arizona Senate President] Karen Fann to ensure that everything is accurate,” Ward said.

Ward also took aim at Maricopa County for initially saying it would comply with the subpoenas (the first round was issued in December) by agreeing to turn over routers, then reversing itself.

“The county was packing the routers up one day, then the next day said it wouldn’t turn them over because the routers shared information with law enforcement,” she said. “Why would the election department and sheriff’s office be sharing routers? That’s not good for election or law enforcement security and might not be legal, if the story is true at all.”

During a recent appearance in Tucson, former President Donald Trump referred to routers numerous times. Trump was the first GOP presidential candidate to lose Arizona since 1996.

This week Arizona Senate Republicans issued new subpoenas to Maricopa County officials, demanding that they turn over equipment and information they haven’t provided, materials that outside contractors conducting the audit insist they need to complete the job.

Speaking at a July 15 update hearing on the audit, Jeff Logan, president of Cyber Ninjas, lead contractor in the audit, said the vote count could not be completed without the routers and other election-related materials.

Ben Cotton, head of a digital security firm CyFIR, which is involved in the audit, said that the routers would help clarify vulnerabilities in the county’s digital-election system.

The subpoenas also cover envelopes from all mail-in ballots or images of them, traffic logs, detailed voter registration records with change histories, and records related to security breaches of election systems.

Back in February, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Thomason ruled that the Senate was within its authority to subpoena the county to turn over the election equipment.

“The court finds that the subpoenas are legal and enforceable,” Thomason wrote in his ruling.