Maricopa County, Arizona’s board of supervisors told the Republican-controlled state Senate to shove it in response to subpoenas for even more election materials.
“It is now August of 2021. The election of November 2020 is over. If you haven’t figured out that the election in Maricopa county was free, fair, and accurate yet, I’m not sure you ever will,” Board Chair Jack Sellers (R) wrote to the Senate.
The Senate has subpoenaed Maricopa County before, winning a court battle that forced the county to hand over 2020 ballots and election machines months ago.
The “audit” that inspected those materials seemed to be coming to a rocky close when the Senate demanded more materials, the result of a hearing that included some pretty blatantly incorrect numbers.
The new round of subpoenas demanded ballot envelopes with voter signatures and routers from the county, among other things.
The Senate also subpoenaed voting machine company Dominion for the first time, a demand with which the company declined to comply.
“Dominion is not a public officer or public body and, therefore, has no obligation to make its records available for public inspection,” the company’s president and CEO John Poulus wrote. “Relatedly, Dominion’s privately-owned security keys and confidential passwords are not ‘public records’ subject to disclosure under the Law.”
Sellers was slightly more colorful.
“The Board has real work to do and little time to entertain this adventure in never-never land,” the board chair wrote in his response to the Senate. “Please finish whatever it is that you are doing and release whatever it is you are going to release.”
“There was no fraud, there wasn’t an injection of ballots from Asia nor was there a satellite that beamed votes into our election equipment,” he added, referencing poplar theories that have driven lies about a stolen election. “It’s time for all elected officials to tell the truth and stop encouraging conspiracy theories.”
“Release your report and be prepared to defend any accusations of misdeeds in court,” Sellers concluded. “It’s time to move on.”
