{"id":459660,"date":"2021-04-27T10:31:23","date_gmt":"2021-04-27T14:31:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=459660"},"modified":"2021-04-27T12:13:56","modified_gmt":"2021-04-27T16:13:56","slug":"arizona-ag-rejects-secretary-of-states-call-for-probe-of-gop-led-maricopa-county-vote-audit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/arizona-ag-rejects-secretary-of-states-call-for-probe-of-gop-led-maricopa-county-vote-audit\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona AG Rejects Secretary of State\u2019s Call for Probe of GOP-Led Maricopa County Vote Audit"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Farizona-ag-rejects-secretary-of-states-call-for-probe-of-gop-led-maricopa-county-vote-audit%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=459660&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Arizona\u2019s attorney general has rejected the state\u2019s top election official\u2019s call for an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-investigation\">investigation<\/a> into possible irregularities in a Republican-led audit of 2020 election results.<\/p>\n<p>Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, on Friday <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SecretaryHobbs\/status\/1385645688600498181?s=20\">wrote a letter<\/a> to Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovich, citing media reports of security lapses at the audit site and calling for a probe into \u201cpotential violations of Arizona\u2019s elections laws in connection with the Senate\u2019s \u2018audit\u2019 of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-maricopa-county\">Maricopa County<\/a> election materials.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brnovich <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SecretaryHobbs\/status\/1385752484149284864?s=20\">responded in a letter<\/a> Friday, saying Hobbs provided \u201cno facts\u201d to warrant a probe, calling her references to reports \u201cspeculation insufficient to support the request for an official investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Arizona\u2019s GOP-led Senate has waged a legislative and legal battle to audit the 2020 election results in Maricopa County, the state\u2019s most populous county where Democrat votes anchored President Joe Biden\u2019s win in Arizona, which flipped blue in the presidential race for just the second time in 72 years.<\/p>\n<p>While several reviews of election results have found no issues that would overturn Biden\u2019s narrow win in Arizona, questions about the legitimacy of the presidential election have swirled, with Senate Republicans insisting on their own audit to allay any doubts and restore confidence in the integrity of the vote.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3714583\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3714583\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-13.jpeg\" alt=\"maricopa county\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\"  style=\"display:none\"><\/noscript>A poll worker sorts ballots inside the Maricopa County Election Department in Phoenix, Ariz., on Nov. 5, 2020. (Olivier Touron\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>To conduct the audit, Republicans who control the state Senate hired Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based cybersecurity firm that Hobbs took aim at in a Monday interview on The Choice, saying the company \u201chas no auditing experience, no election experience, and they\u2019re clearly just making this up as they go along.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SecretaryHobbs\/status\/1385645688600498181?s=20\">a tweet<\/a>, Hobbs also said that \u201cLocal reporting yesterday made it clear that @FannKfann and her Cyber Ninjas have not implemented sufficient security to protect the integrity of election equipment and ballots,\u201d referring to\u00a0Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican who has been at the forefront of the audit.<\/p>\n<p>Fann, in a brief comment last week, said that the ballots are protected by bonded and certified 24-hour security forces, kept in locked cages and a public live stream is on 24 hours a day,\u00a0reported\u00a0The Associated Press.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_3792294\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-459518\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-3957.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"739\" height=\"494\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-3792294\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-21.jpeg\" alt=\"Election Audit\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" \/><\/noscript>Real-time camera footage of\u00a0Maricopa County\u2019s large-scale audit of the 2020 election, Maricopa County, Ariz. (Screenshot\/The Epoch Times)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Hobbs announced\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/SecretaryHobbs\/status\/1386771663677661185?s=20\">in a tweet<\/a> on Monday that she had filed an amicus brief in a lawsuit filed by the Arizona Democrat Party against\u00a0Fann, with the Secretary of State saying she \u201cprovided declarations from election experts regarding the audit\u2019s lack of security, procedure, and transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0Arizona\u00a0Democratic Party filed the lawsuit last week (<a href=\"https:\/\/assets.documentcloud.org\/documents\/20689079\/az-dem-party-v-fann-complaint.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pdf<\/a>), seeking to stop the audit.<\/p>\n<p>Kelli Ward, Chair of the Arizona Republican Party, questioned the Democrats\u2019 lawsuit in a statement on Thursday. \u201cThe Democrats are STILL trying to stop the Maricopa County audit and defy the AZ Senate subpoena. What are they hiding? Hearing tomorrow on this ridiculous temporary restraining order,\u201d she\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/kelliwardaz\/status\/1385415334656561152?s=20\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">wrote on Twitter<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Arizona Senate\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AZSenateGOP\/status\/1377321595518083074\/photo\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">said<\/a>\u00a0that its \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/arizona-state-senate-ordering-hand-recount-of-2-1-million-ballots-for-2020-presidential-election_3742329.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">broad and detailed<\/a>\u201d audit \u201cwill validate every area of the voting process\u201d and includes, but is not limited to, scanning all the ballots, a full hand recount, auditing the voter registration and votes cast, the vote counts, and the electronic voting system.<\/p>\n<p>The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors had previously resisted Senate subpoenas to turn over election equipment for the audit and repeatedly maintained that there were no issues with the conduct of the 2020 election.<\/p>\n<p><em>Mimi Nguyen-Ly contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Arizona\u2019s attorney general has rejected the state\u2019s top election official\u2019s call for an investigation into possible irregularities in a Republican-led audit of 2020 election results. Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2276807,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-13.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Arizona AG Rejects Secretary of State\u2019s Call for Probe of GOP-Led Maricopa County Vote Audit","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-459660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/04\/fb_image-13.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Arizona AG Rejects Secretary of State\u2019s Call for Probe of GOP-Led Maricopa County Vote Audit","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=459660"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459660\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2276807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}