Former President Donald Trump has asked Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to provide security for a 2020 election audit taking place in the state’s largest county.
“The Republican Party is demanding that Gov. Ducey of Arizona immediately provide large-scale security for the brave American Patriots doing the Forensic Audit of the 2020 Presidential Election,” Trump wrote in a statement on April 24.
“Gov. Ducey will be held fully responsible for the safety of those involved. State police or National Guard must be immediately sent out for protection. The Democrats do not want to have this information revealed, and they will do anything to stop it. Gov. Ducey must finally act!”
Ducey’s office didn’t respond to a request by The Epoch Times for comment by press time.
The audit started on April 19 in Maricopa County.
Companies hired by the state Senate are examining 2.1 million ballots, testing voting machines, looking for IT breaches, and performing a hand count.
The state-issued subpoenas that were needed to execute the audit were ruled as valid on Feb. 25.
In the lawsuit, Democrats alleged that workers set to perform the audit weren’t properly trained and that the companies haven’t adopted or implemented security procedures, including ballot handling rules, required by state law. Roopali Desai, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said during the hearing that reports suggested there had been illegal access to ballots this week. A lawyer for the state Senate, Kory Langhofer, said Democrats provided no evidence for their claims.
The audit is being conducted by four out-of-state companies—Wake Technology Services, CyFIR, Digital Discovery, and Cyber Ninjas. Florida-based cybersecurity company Cyber Ninjas will be leading the audit, the Senate said, adding that they focus on computer application security for financial services and government clients.
A report is expected to be released on the audit’s findings in about two months.
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who has expressed concern about audit security, asked Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, on April 23 to investigate reports that the Senate failed to secure the equipment and ballots its contractors are auditing, resulting in “unauthorized and unmonitored access to both.”
Brnovich told Hobbs in a response letter that her vague reference to reports “does not meet the standard of a credible allegation—it is speculation insufficient to support the request for an official investigation.”
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