Maricopa County Republicans speak out again ballot audit
Board of Supervisors vice chairman says, 'It is time to push back on the big lie'
PHOENIX, Ariz.(KYMA, KECY/CBS News) - Maricopa County's top Republicans took to the podium Monday to mount an intense defense of their handling of the 2020 election.
The Arizona state Senate is currently conducting an audit of all 2.1 million votes cast in Arizona's most populous county on, or before, the November 3, 2020 general election. Last week, Senate President Karen Fann sent the county's supervisors a letter questioning chain of custody records for those ballots. The letter also accuses county officials of deleting data.
The supervisors came forward Monday to deny any wrongdoing, and lash out at their critics. Republicans dominate the Board, so members made clear, it was not a partisan issue.
"I want to be clear that I believe that Joe Biden won the election, all right, and the reason that I feel confident in saying that, particularly in Maricopa County, is that we overturned every stone." said Vice Chairman Bill Gates. "And we have professionals both with the early voting and the Election Day voting. They did everything right. We asked the difficult questions. All right. And we certified the election back in November. But now it's time to say enough is enough."
Supervisors also signed off on a letter calling for an end to the audit. Gates called on Fann, and those who support the audit, to accept the truth.
"It is time to push back on the big lie. We must do this. We must do this as a member of the Republican Party. We must do this as a member of the Board of Supervisors. We need to do this as a country. Otherwise, we are not going to be able to move forward and have an election in 2022 that we can all believe the results, whatever they may be." said Gates.
Fann had invited the Supervisors to a Tuesday afternoon meeting at the state Capitol. The board declined to attend that meeting. Gates called the meeting "political theater."
"Again, this wasn't a fight that I chose, or any of the people up here. And by the way, I respect every single one of them for being up here, because they don't have to be here, but they're here because we work together. But again, we must say once and for all that it is time to move on." he said.
The Arizona Senate moved forward with the audit in spite of numerous investigations finding no issue with Maricopa County's voting procedures. The Board says Fann and her colleagues simply do not understand how the election process works.
The audit is on hiatus for the next week. Senate Republicans temporarily lost access to the venue in which they're conducting the audit. They'll have to stop the count until high school graduations scheduled for Phoenix's Veteran's Memorial Coliseum are complete.
Ballots, voting machines, and other pertinent materials are being stored on site at until auditors can resume the recount. Neither the Senate, nor auditors, have provided any details on the type of security that will be in place while the materials are in storage.
