Arizona’s Maricopa County Delivers Ballots, Equipment for 2020 Election Audit

Arizona’s Maricopa County Delivers Ballots, Equipment for 2020 Election Audit
Votes are counted by staff at the Maricopa County Elections Department office in Phoenix, Ariz., on Nov. 5, 2020. (Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images)
Zachary Stieber
4/22/2021
Updated:
4/23/2021

Voting equipment and more than 2 million ballots are being delivered to a facility in Arizona’s Maricopa County this week in preparation for a 2020 election audit set to start on April 23.

Equipment, including 385 tabulators, was delivered and unloaded at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix on April 21, while boxes of the ballots began arriving early on April 22.

Maricopa County officials arranged for the deliveries, which took several trips and were supported by Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office personnel, to comply with subpoenas from the state Senate.

Officials who had sought to resist the subpoenas were overruled by a judge in February.

Workers with four firms, including Cyber Ninjas, will conduct the audit of 2.1 million ballots. They’re receiving $150,000. A One America News host helped raise at least another $150,000 for the effort.
The audit will be streamed live on One America News Network; people also can watch the audit here and on The Epoch Times website.

Auditors will examine the state’s system that checks voters in at polling sites, inspect and hand-count ballots, and review the electronic voting system. They will produce a report detailing all their findings in about 60 days.

It isn’t clear how long the audit will take. The agreement giving auditors use of the arena runs through May 14.

Phones and recording devices aren’t allowed into the observation area, where observers from all political parties, and independents, will watch the ballot counting.

Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office personnel will provide security for the audit.

Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, said last month that the audit will provide assurance that the 2020 results were accurate. Jack Sellers, the Republican chairman of Maricopa County’s Board of Supervisors, said on March 31 that two extensive and independent audits the month prior “showed no evidence of equipment malfunction or foul play.”

Arizona’s Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, has asserted that the audit will be “biased.” Her office didn’t immediately respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment.

Biden was the first Democratic presidential nominee to win Maricopa County, where Phoenix is located, in decades.