Trump team lawyers and Arizona lawmakers hold a public hearing on election integrity in Phoenix on Nov. 30.
Arizona’s attorney general said Wednesday (Dec. 30) that the state legislature has the authority to issue subpoenas regarding election administration and conduct election audits.
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich made the comments Wednesday in the ongoing Maricopa County Superior Court case of Fann v. Maricopa County.
The plaintiffs in the case are Arizona Senate President Karen Fann and state Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Eddie Farnsworth. They issued subpoenas to the county’s Board of Supervisors of Elections earlier this month, requesting an audit of scanned ballots and a forensic audit of ballot tabulation equipment and software. But the Board of Supervisors voted against enforcing the subpoenas and sought a court ruling on whether they must comply. The Arizona senators then filed a counterclaim asking the court to enforce the subpoenas, which was denied.
In an opinion issued Wednesday on court documents, Arizona Attorney General Bruno Vicki said state Rep. Fein and others have the right to have county election officials produce materials from the Nov. 3 election, including scans of mail-in ballots and images of voting machines.
He also refuted county officials’ claims.
“The Arizona Legislature has broad authority to issue subpoenas regarding the administration of elections for the 2020 general election, both to review how the county performed its duties during the election and to enact future election legislation.” Brunovich said, “Any such arguments by the county would be frustrated.”
County officials previously said the subpoenas from state lawmakers “far exceeded” the powers of the state legislature and that “the subpoenas are illegal.”
Brnovich said that is incorrect and that the U.S. Constitution gives each state legislature the power to determine when, where and how to hold elections and to decide how to select the electors who will elect the president of the United States.
He also noted that Arizona law gives the legislature the power to make “laws to ensure clean elections and to prevent abuse of the right to vote.
“The Arizona legislature should be allowed to issue subpoenas to determine whether government officials authorized to administer elections have faithfully performed those duties and to determine whether existing laws governing the administration of elections should remain intact or be amended.” Brnovich wrote.
“The Arizona Legislature has the authority to leave election laws intact or to amend them, and the court should also recognize that the Arizona Legislature has the authority to issue subpoenas to obtain information to help it choose the best path forward for Arizona.” He added.
A spokesman for the county Board of Supervisors had no immediate comment on the issue.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Clint Hickman told The Arizona Republic that the attorney general’s opinion did not address whether legislators can issue subpoenas to overturn election results.
He said the issue before the court was whether legislative subpoenas are the proper constitutional mechanism, and whether the state Senate has the authority to require custody of voting machines and voter databases and millions of ballots.
Hickman argued that state lawmakers aim to flip the results of the Nov. 3, 2020, election and choose the presidential electors they want, a question the attorney general’s opinion declined to answer.
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