In February, a judge ruled that the AZ Senate election audit subpoenas were “legal and enforceable”.
Arizona State Senator Kelly Townsend sent a reminder to the county through Twitter, which seems the only way to contact them.
Townsend recently called on the Board of Supervisors to get off Twitter and work with the Senate or resign after Wednesday’s audit findings were revealed.
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/07/az-state-sen-kelly-townsend-demands-ag-brnovich-investigate-az-audit-findings-countys-bogus-response/
“We respect his legal opinion & will immediately start working to provide the Arizona Senate with the ballots and other materials,” Sellers said in a statement after meeting with county lawyers.” Still waiting on passwords, routers, & envelopes/signatures.
“We respect his legal opinion & will immediately start working to provide the Arizona Senate with the ballots and other materials,” Sellers said in a statement after meeting with county lawyers." Still waiting on passwords, routers, & envelopes/signatures.https://t.co/mmNXW3FUe2
— Kelly Townsend (@AZKellyT) July 17, 2021
The Senate’s lawyers contended that the constitution gives the Legislature the role of maintaining the purity of elections and make sure voter integrity is protected, that the subpoenas were legal and a proper use of legislative power.
In his ruling, Thomason agreed with the Senate on all those arguments, saying the subpoenas “are legal and enforceable.”
“There is no question that the Senators have the power to issue legislative subpoenas,” Thomason wrote. “The Subpoenas comply with the statutory requirements for legislative subpoenas. The Senate also has broad constitutional power to oversee elections.
“The Arizona legislature clearly has the power to investigate and examine election reform matters,” the ruling says. “The Subpoenas also do not violate separation of powers principles. Production of the subpoenaed materials would not violate confidentiality laws.”
Board Chairman Jack Sellers said the ruling “brings clarity to whether Senate subpoenas apply to ballots that, per state law, must be kept private following an election; as well as the many other documents and equipment demanded.
“We respect his legal opinion and will immediately start working to provide the Arizona Senate with the ballots and other materials,” Sellers said in a statement after meeting with county lawyers. “These items are in addition to the more than 11GB of data already provided. We hope senators will show the same respect and care we have for the 2.1 million private ballots and use them in service of their legislative duties.”
Our governmental officials should not be spending valuable resources on lawyers, ‘fighting’ with another branch of government over what materials can be provided to another branch of government under a subpoena,” Thomason wrote. “Rather, the citizens expect their governmental officials to work cooperatively for the common good. It is highly unfortunate that that has not happened here. When government officials resort to ‘name calling’ and threats, something has gone terribly wrong.”
Because of the Arizona Senate’s constitutional authority to oversee elections, these subpoenas are legitimate and must be complied with.
Production of these materials does not violate any laws. However, the County has refused to give access to routers, passwords, and splunk logs, and envelopes, citing law enforcement security concerns or claiming to not have access. Yeah, right.
Chairman Jack Sellers said at the time that this ruling brought “clarity” to what the Senate is capable of doing with subpoenas which means he knows that they are violating the law.
He also said that they respect the judgment and will “immediately” provide the materials. Total BS.
He did not do this.
Maricopa County now claims that Cyber Ninjas has everything they need. Again, this is not true and they are violating subpoenas. Where is Attorney General Brnovich?
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/07/maricopa-county-responds-senate-via-twitter-makes-false-claims-audit-refusing-prove-audit-wrong/
Jack Sellers said on Friday, “To Senate leaders I say, stop accusing us of not cooperating when we have given you everything qualified auditors would need to do this job.”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2021/07/maricopa-county-supervisor-jack-sellers-fails-badly-total-bs-response-az-audit-hearing/
If you have nothing to hide, why are you hiding?
