Grand Canyon Times

Arizona Senate Republicans could be on the verge of getting answers to the level of security in routers and other equipment used in the 2020 Maricopa County elections.

The caucus appointed to oversee the review of equipment and software used to monitor election data, called Splunk logs, have agreed on three IT experts to conduct the investigation. The caucus consists of county officials and former Republican U.S. Rep. John Shadegg, who will serve as special master.

"After more than three months, all parties have finally agreed on three IT experts to extract the information the Senate is requesting from the Splunk logs and routers," Senate President Karen Fann (R-Prescott) said in a statement. "Having been instructed not to release the questions prior to the IT experts being hired, the Senate is submitting the list of questions provided by the auditors. We are hoping to conclude this part of the audit expeditiously and without any further delays.”

In September, an agreement was reached to hire a special master after the county twice ignored Republican caucus subpoenas to turn over the routers as part of a forensic audit conducted by Florida-based Cyber Ninjas. The county previously provided nearly 2.1 million cast ballots, ballot tabulation machines and other equipment, but not the routers. 

County officials argued that the routers, although not connected to the Internet during the election, were connected to county agencies, including the Sheriff’s Department. Officials said they feared sensitive information would be made public if the router data was released.

The list of questions the Senate sent to Shadegg include whether any evidence shows that the routers or switches in the election network were connected to the public Internet, and how the routers and switches were protected against third party access. They also ask if evidence shows that information was deleted from the routers and Splunk logs.

Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan has said that an examination of the routers and Splunk logs was imperative for a thorough audit of the elections.

In September, Cyber Ninjas released its audit report without conducting a review of the routers. Also in September, Cyber Ninjas defied an order by the Arizona Court of Appeals to turn its audit records over to Fann, as she requested.

In January, Superior Court Judge John Hannah fined the company $50,000 for violating the court order, which the company continues to defy.

Also in September, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich asked county officials for all records related to the 2020 elections. An elections integrity unit in his office is conducting a separate investigation, but his office has not issued a timeline for its completion.

In 2016, Donald Trump won Maricopa County by 44,454 votes. In 2020, Joe Biden bested Trump by more than 45,000 votes.

The Cyber Ninjas review added more votes to Biden's edge.