PHOENIX — A state Senate committee head is demanding that Maricopa County officials produce a laundry list of documents and records regarding the just completed general election.
And Kelly Townsend, chair of the Senate Government Committee, wants them by Monday morning.
Some of the information she wants delivered to the Senate already was addressed by either county Recorder Stephen Richer or Bill Gates, who chairs the county Board of Supervisors, her fellow Republicans. That includes things like a list of which voting centers had problems with tabulators accepting ballots and the “exact reasons for the issues.’’
County officials have said some of the ballots produced on site — a necessity because any voter could go to any polling place — were not dark enough because of issues with some printers, resulting in the tabulator scanners not being able to read the marks to align them.
Townsend, an Apache Junction Republican, also wants things like the names of voters who checked in at voting centers on Election Day and dropped off their early ballots but whose votes were subsequently voided. She is demanding similar information about people who checked in at a second voting location after experiencing problems with their ballots at the first site.
She wants proof the county followed certain procedures required in law for everything from reconciling the number of ballots cast versus the number of people who checked in, to obeying rules on maintaining an unbroken chain of custody of the ballots.
And then she wants details of how the printers were set up, and by whom.
All this comes as Townsend prepares to leave the Legislature at the end of the year. She lost her primary race to Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, whom she had to face after the Independent Redistricting Commission put them in the same district.
The Legislature is not set to reconvene until Jan. 9.
But Townsend told Capitol Media Services her committee can still meet to review what the county produces.
“I have many questions that I asked,’’ Townsend said. “They told me to do a public records request and get in line.’’
She said that was not an acceptable answer, particularly after she sought information following the August primary, turned in a public records request — and ended up with a $300 bill from the county.
“So I chose to go the route of a subpoena,’’ she said.
Townsend also said the information she wants is “time sensitive.’’
The state is set to “canvass’’ the election results Dec. 5. State law allows for challenges within five days after that.
But a successful challenge requires proof either of “illegal votes’’ or of an “erroneous count’’ that declared the wrong person the winner.
There already is one challenge mounted by Abe Hamadeh, the Republican candidate for attorney general. His attorneys contend there were enough mistakes to make up the 510-vote lead tallied by Democrat Kris Mayes.
Anything discovered by Townsend and her committee, however, could provide fodder for losing GOP gubernatorial hopeful Kari Lake.
The final tally showed Lake behind Democrat Katie Hobbs by 17,116 votes. But Lake has refused to concede, with allies like Republican Congressman Paul Gosar urging a “redo’’ of the election, something that does not appear to be a legal option.
Whether the county can meet Townsend’s deadline is unclear.
County spokesman Jason Berry said the clerk of the Board of Supervisors was not formally served with the subpoena until 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, with Thanksgiving on Thursday and the county not open on Friday. “But we will do our best,’’ Berry said.
There is no question that a legislative subpoena is legal and can be enforced.
After Donald Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, R-Prescott, subpoenaed various election records and access to voting equipment. Maricopa County supervisors voted 4-1 to sue instead and ask a judge to determine whether the subpoena was legally valid.
The case ultimately was settled with the supervisors conceding the Senate’s authority.
Townsend said the information she wants is crucial to the Legislature’s role in writing new election laws.
“We need to make an assessment of what happened,’’ she said. “If we don’t know what happened, we don’t know how to propose legislation.’’
Townsend said the problems “completely undermined any confidence that was left.’’
“Now we’re the laughingstock of the entire country,’’ she said. “Just because I’m not going to be here (in the new Legislature) doesn’t mean I don’t have a duty to ask the questions now.”
It isn’t just Townsend demanding immediate answers from officials in the state’s largest county.
Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich, also leaving office at the end of the year, submitted his own list of questions, and also gave county officials until Monday to respond.
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