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Legislators in Arizona and officials in the state\u2019s largest county clashed anew this week over election audit subpoenas, with county officials refusing to hand over routers and claiming they do not have passwords to access administrative control functions of election machines.<\/p>\n
Arizona\u2019s Senate told Maricopa County on Friday that it would issue subpoenas for live testimony from the county\u2019s Board of Supervisors unless it received the materials that are being withheld.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ve been asked to relay that the Senate views the County\u2019s explanations on the router and passwords issues as inadequate and potentially incorrect<\/em>,\u201d a lawyer for the Senate said in\u00a0an email<\/a>\u00a0to county officials.<\/p>\n The Arizona Senate subpoenaed a slew of election materials, such as ballots, following the 2020 election. Lawmakers also issued subpoenas for election machines, passwords, and other technology.<\/p>\n Maricopa County alleged in a lawsuit that the request for materials was overly broad and threatened voter privacy. A judge, though,\u00a0ruled that they were \u201cthe equivalent of a Court order.\u201d<\/a>\u00a0But the county\u00a0said this week<\/a>\u00a0it is not turning over routers or router images, claiming that doing so poses a significant security risk to law enforcement.<\/p>\n The county has also informed the Senate\u2019s audit liaison, former Republican Secretary of State Ken Bennett,\u00a0that it does not have passwords to access administrative functions on Dominion Voting Systems machines that were used to scan ballots during the election.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019ve told us that they don\u2019t have that second password, or that they\u2019ve given us all the passwords they have. They\u2019ve also told us that they now can\u2019t, as they promised a couple weeks ago, provide our subcontractors with the virtual access to the routers and hubs and other things at the Maricopa County tabulation and election center, as was part of the subpoenas,<\/em>\u201d Bennett told One America News at the site of the audit in Phoenix.<\/p>\n John Brakey, a Democrat who is serving as an assistant to Bennett, told the broadcaster that he was \u201cblown away\u201d by the password development.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like leasing a car and they refuse to give you the keys. They\u2019re supposed to be running the election. You know what\u2019s wrong?\u00a0<\/strong>Sometimes these vendors have too much power, and we\u2019re voting on secret software, and that\u2019s why this recount down here is very important,<\/em>\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Jack Sellers, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County board, said Friday that he is angered by allegations of corruption and would not address every allegation, but would speak to the password issue.<\/p>\n \u201cThe specific password and security tokens Ken Bennett referenced this week provide access to proprietary firmware and source code. Elections administrators do not need to access this information to hold an election, and we do not have it in our custody,\u201d he said in\u00a0a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n The county board called an emergency meeting later on Friday. The board was going to consider legal advice and litigation regarding its non-compliance with the Senate subpoenas.<\/p>\n In\u00a0a response<\/a>\u00a0to the Senate\u2019s lawyer, Allister Adel, Maricopa County\u2019s attorney, said that the county has \u201calready produced every password and security key for the tabulators that is [sic] within the County\u2019s possession.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt does not have any others,\u201d Adel added. The county is working to figure out if there is \u201ca safe manner\u201d to get the Senate information from the routers without risking non-election data.<\/p>\n Dominion, whose machines are used in about half of U.S. states, did not respond to a request for comment.\u00a0The company has said it supports forensic audits by federally-accredited laboratories and that Cyber Ninjas, which is leading the Arizona audit, is not verified<\/strong>. Both Dominion and Sellers noted that Maricopa County contracted its own audits, one for machines and another for ballots.<\/p>\n But Brakey, the assistant Senate liaison, has called the description of those audits misleading. The ballot batches were picked beforehand and auditors only analyzed a small percentage of the ballots cast in the election, he said, while the machine testing could only determine whether the technology was working well at the time of the review.<\/p>\n \u201cThey claim that\u2019s an audit. I call it fatally flawed,\u201d he told One America News.<\/p>\n Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone, meanwhile, joined other county officials in decrying the Senate\u2019s attempt to obtain the routers.<\/p>\n \u201cIts most recent demands jeopardize the entire mission of the Maricopa County Sheriff\u2019s Office,\u201d he said in\u00a0a statement<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are talking about confidential, sensitive, and highly-classified law enforcement data and equipment that will be permanently compromised. The current course is mind-numbingly reckless and irresponsible. I look forward to briefing them on the horrendous consequences of this demand and the breadth of its negative impact on the public safety in this County.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/assets.zerohedge.com\/s3fs-public\/styles\/inline_image_mobile\/public\/inline-images\/maricopa-audit-1200x800.jpg?itok=eKXPIHlo\")