Arizona Senate questions whether Maricopa County officials erased key election files
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann requested Maricopa County officials meet with her to resolve issues related to the 2020 election audit after it was discovered that someone deleted a main database from the Election Management System last month.
“We have recently discovered that the entire ‘Database’ directory from the D drive of the machine ‘EMSPrimary’ has been deleted,” Fann wrote in a letter to Jack Sellers, Chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. She says the information deleted from the drive is covered by the Senate’s subpoena, which allows the seizing of election materials for the audit.
“This suggests that the main database for all election-related data for the November 2020 General Election has been removed,” she added. “Can you please advise as to why these folders were deleted, and whether there are any backups that may contain the deleted folders?”
Fann requested Elections Department officials, and others privy to the matter, meet at the Arizona State Capitol on May 18 to address the EMS files along with other audit-related issues she mentions in her letter, “without recourse to additional subpoenas or other compulsory process.”
The audit team’s volunteer-run Twitter account, said the team’s allegations point toward “spoliation of evidence” by county officials.
If officials respond to Fann’s letter and the meeting takes place, it would be live streamed to the public.
Former President Donald Trump has lauded efforts by Arizona Repblicans to audit the 2020 election. He also weighed in on Fann’s letter.
“A devastating letter written by Arizona Senate President Karen Fann on voting irregularities, and probably fraud, in Maricopa County during the 2020 Presidential Election. Even the database was illegally deleted after the subpoena to produce the information,” Trump said in a statement on Thursday.
The audit resumed on Thursday after a weeklong pause for high school graduation ceremonies to take place at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where the audit is being conducted.
The Arizona Exposition and State Fair Board amended an agreement on Wednesday with the facility to allow the safe storage of election materials until May 23, also extending the lease at the Coliseum until June 30 to allow more time for ballot counting.