senators in December urging them to object to the certification of Pennsylvania's results. The trio was part of over 60 members of the state assembly who had written a letter to U.S. In Pennsylvania, GOP state Senators Doug Mastriano and Cris Dush, along with state Representative Rob Kauffman, who chairs the judiciary committee, traveled to the audit site in Phoenix to observe the process and met with Arizona lawmakers at the state capitol. Senate, fired back with a letter Monday saying Garland's comments "displayed an alarming disdain for state sovereignty" and vowed his office "will not tolerate any effort to undermine or interfere with our State Senate's audit to reassure Arizonans of the accuracy of our elections."įormer President Trump has been cheering on the audit in Arizona and encouraging other states to follow its example. Workers are also checking to see if there was a hand-marked device that filled in an oval rather than a printer and whether alignment marks on the front and back were "aligning as authentic ballots should." The audit's findings are expected to be released in a report later this summer.Īttorney General Merrick Garland said last week the audit is "based on disinformation" and "may put the integrity of the voting process at risk and undermine public confidence in our democracy." Announcing an expansion of the civil rights division, Garland said the department would scrutinize post-election audits "to ensure they abide by federal statutory requirements to protect election records and avoid the intimidation of voters."Īrizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, who is running for the U.S. Their methods have included looking at the folds in mail ballots as a way of checking whether the ballots were actually mailed - even though not every mail-in ballot is folded, as one former Maricopa elections official noted. Bennett told reporters earlier this month that workers will examine "anything to do with the authenticity of the ballot." The audit's official Twitter account said the paper ballot examination is expected to be finished by June 26.
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann has said the process is about ensuring the election was run properly. "This has nothing to do with going back and trying to change the results of the November 2020 election," Ken Bennett, a former GOP secretary of state and the Senate's audit liaison, previously told CBS News. "Finish what you're calling an audit and be ready to defend your report in a court of law," Sellers said. The effort has inspired conservative lawmakers and activists in other battleground states to call for a similar recounting of ballots, despite thorough reviews of the election that have repeatedly found no evidence of widespread fraud. The audit in Maricopa County won't change the results of the 2020 election, but it has already had widespread impact in amplifying unfounded doubts about the election. President Biden won the state by 10,457 votes, becoming the first Democratic presidential candidate to carry Arizona since 1996. Arizona had already audited its ballots and election equipment and found no issues with the 2020 election results. The county's 2.1 million ballots have been recounted by hand, except for the braille ballots, which are now undergoing a "paper examination" by workers.Įarlier this year, Arizona Senate Republicans took possession of the ballots and 400 election machines by subpoena. The ongoing partisan review of ballots in Maricopa County, Arizona, is entering its final stages after just under two months.
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