Dominion, Maricopa County refuse to comply with state Senate subpoenas in Arizona audit

Maricopa County and Dominion Voting Systems have both refused to comply with a subpoena from the GOP-controlled Arizona state Senate demanding that representatives from the county and the company produce materials as part of its audit of the 2020 presidential election.

The Arizona Republic reported that the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors responded to the subpoena with a letter stating they have already provided much of what has been asked of them in subpoenas filed at the beginning of this year and late last year.

They also stated that some of the materials that have been requested are in the custody of the recorder’s office, which was not named in the subpoena, according to the Republic.

“Specifically, providing these routers puts sensitive, confidential data belonging to Maricopa County citizens — including Social Security numbers and protected health information — at risk,” Thomas Liddy, civil division chief for the county attorney’s office, wrote.

“Further, the Maricopa County Sheriff has explained that the production of the routers would render MCSO internal law enforcement communication infrastructure extremely vulnerable to hackers,” Liddy added.

The Republic reported that Dominion outright refused to comply with the subpoena, saying in a letter that the request “violates (the company’s) constitutional rights and … exceeds the Legislature’s constitutional and statutory authority. Doing so would cause grave harm.”

Last week, the Department of Justice (DOJ) issued a warning to states regarding voting laws and audits, a clear dig at the election audit in Arizona.

“The department is concerned that some jurisdictions conducting [audits] may be using, or proposing to use, procedures that risk violating the Civil Rights Act,” the DOJ wrote in its guidance.

Arizona has hired Cyber Ninjas to conduct the audit despite the fact that the company has no prior experience in election audits.

“Where elections records are no longer under the control of elections officials, this can lead to a significant risk of the records being lost, stolen, altered, compromised, or destroyed,” the DOJ added. “This risk is exacerbated if the election records are given to private actors who have neither experience nor expertise in handling such records and who are unfamiliar with the obligations imposed by federal law.”