Arizona high court to decide if Senate audit records can be kept secret

(KYMA, KECY/ AP News) - In the continuous battle over the events of the 2020 election audit in Arizona, the Arizona Supreme Court says it will hear and consider the Senate’s appeal of lower court rulings that decided it must release hundreds of records related to its partisan review.

In a decision last month, the appeals court ruled that legislative privilege does not broadly protect the records.

The Senate and Cyber Ninjas, who was hired to run the GOP's 2020 election review, have been battling for months over two public records lawsuits. One filed by the parent of the Arizona Republic and the second by a government watchdog group, American Oversight.

They argue that the public has a clear right to know how the Senate and its contractors conducted the election review. The Senate’s contractors recounted 2.1 million Maricopa County ballots by hand amid claims by some Republicans that former President Donald Trump lost Arizona because of election fraud.

So far, the Senate has disclosed more than 20,000 records but is withholding all or part of about 1,000 documents citing the legislative privilege.

Now the Supreme court will directly review whether the ruling from lower courts is the correct standard.