AZ Audit Exclusive: Board of Supervisors Didn't Trust County Recorder to Oversee Elections in 2018
Amidst Maricopa County officials’ attempts to discredit the presidential election audit ongoing in Arizona, state Senate President Karen Fann dropped a bombshell on Thursday that could undermine the county’s credibility.
Speaking with The Western Journal on Thursday, Fann revealed that the very same county election officials didn’t trust their own county recorder to oversee the 2018 election in the state.
The Election Department’s Board of Supervisors approached Fann roughly two years ago, admitting they had “serious problems with Adrian Fontes in the 2018 election,” Fann said.
Since its inception, county officials have resisted the audit of the 2020 election results in Arizona.
They have repeatedly failed to cooperate with the state Senate and have been accused by elected state officials of obstructing the audit process.
Fann believes the county’s lack of transparency is a sign of guilt.
“I do believe that the board of supervisors — and probably under advice by their attorneys — probably said, ‘We’re pretty sure that the elections were not done exactly according to the books, that procedure’s at fault,'” Fann told The Western Journal.
“The reason why I believe this is two, two and a half years ago, the board of supervisors actually came to me right here in this office and said, ‘We have serious problems with Adrian Fontes in the 2018 election, we’re going to hire somebody that will be a liaison between the board of supervisors and Adrian Fontes to oversee this.'”
Despite the county’s reported concerns about Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes, he remained in his position during the 2020 election and left office at the beginning of 2021.
Despite the crucial nature of the audit proceedings in Arizona, county officials aren’t hiding the fact that they have refused to cooperate with the audit.
The county’s official Twitter account admitted as much on Friday.
Claims that Maricopa County is not cooperating with Senate contractors assume that partnering with unqualified contractors with ties to the “Stop the Steal” movement is in the best interest of the County and its voters. This is not the case.
— Maricopa County (@maricopacounty) July 23, 2021
Participating in an “audit” with unqualified actors would put the County at legal and financial risk and would undermine confidence in our election system. Therefore, the County is not participating in activities involving Senate contractors.
— Maricopa County (@maricopacounty) July 23, 2021
Also in the Twitter thread addressing their noncompliance, Maricopa County officials claimed they would not cooperate with the audit due to some of the auditors’ alleged ties to the “Stop the Steal” movement.
However, according to Fann, the audit investigation is not necessarily about finding fraud.
“We have never, never claimed fraud,” Fann told The Western Journal.
“As I said, we’ve never disparaged the computer company or the software company, but what we have said is, ‘Yes, in 2018 there were a lot of questions about things that were going on there,’ and we also know that in 2020, as we saw, there are a lot of questions about what was going on here.”
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