Maricopa County supervisors order election audit in response to allegations

Rampant but baseless allegations of fraud and misconduct in the 2020 general election prompted the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to order an audit of equipment used to tally the November vote, a move the supervisors hope will instill confidence in an election that some Republicans have spent more than two months undermining.

But already a top legislative Republican said the county’s planned audit is insufficient.

The audit will determine whether Maricopa County’s ballot tabulation machines have been hacked in any way or if any malicious software has been installed in them. It will investigate whether the machines were connected to the internet at any point during the 2020 election — something election officials have repeatedly said did not happen — and that no votes were switched. And it will ensure that the machines, which Maricopa County leased in 2019, were acquired through a proper procurement process.

Allegations of fraud began swirling around Maricopa County within days of the Nov. 3 election, as President Donald Trump and many of his supporters began spreading false and baseless claims about rigging and vote switching. Many of those allegations focused on Dominion Voting Systems, which provides the ballot counting machines used by Maricopa County and many counties in other swing states that, like Arizona, voted for Joe Biden in the presidential race.

Read more: https://www.azmirror.com/2021/01/27/maricopa-county-supervisors-order-election-audit-in-response-to-allegations/