PHOENIX — Maricopa County election officials spent most of their Monday defending the County’s handling of the November 3 Presidential election.
"I'm confident in our system, in the integrity of our system, and the security of our system,” Scott Jarrett, the director of election day and emergency voting told a hearing of the state Senate Judiciary Committee.
Republicans on the committee were not impressed. Believing more should have been done to ease voter anxieties over false claims of voter fraud.
“Our constituents are screaming for blood,” said (R) State Senator Sonny Borrelli. “They want to make sure their right, their privilege to vote protected 100%.”
The 2020 election was historic in Maricopa County. A turnout of over 80%, nearly 2 million county residents, voted by mail. Since election day the Arizona Republican party made claims of voter fraud. So far seven separate courts have thrown out the allegations. The Maricopa County Recorders Office did perform a hand count audit. 2% of the vote total was recounted. “We did a sufficient number as required by state statute,” Jarrett told the committee.
But many Republicans on the Judiciary Committee believe the Recorders office should have done more to alleviate fears of voter fraud. Committee Chairman Eddie Farnsworth told Jarrett, “My concern, Mr. Jarrett, is not that there’s malfeasance. I don’t know. But I do have a concern that the county is taking a position it can’t happen.”
The President of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Clint Hickman, says he believes the Board of Supervisors will support an audit of the 2020 election. Something the state’s republican party has been calling on it to do. “To a man all of us are seeking transparency, clarification that will be consistent with what allows,” he said.
Hickman says that any audit should include input from Dominion. The company that provided the voting machines and has been the target of unfounded allegations it tampered with the machines so Joe Biden would beat Donald Trump.
Republicans on the committee say they will use the testimony to help draft legislation that would require more transparency of county elections officials whenever allegations of voter fraud are made.
