Media Enforcement of the “Baseless Claims” Narrative to Suppress Audit Findings (AZ)

The Arizona State Senate exercised its legislative constitutional authority when it issued subpoenas to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in December 2020 and March 2021, compelling production of ballots, tabulation equipment, voter rolls, and election data for independent review. A Maricopa County Superior Court judge subsequently confirmed in July 2021 that “the audit is clearly an official activity, an ‘important’ public function” conducted by the Senate “pursuant to the Arizona Constitution,” and that the Senate had declared the audit “the exercise of its legislative constitutional powers” with “an important and valid legislative purpose to evaluate whether reforms or changes are needed in the voting laws and voting procedures for the State of Arizona.”
Before the audit’s findings were released, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs — who was simultaneously a declared candidate for governor in the 2022 race — published a prebuttal on August 19, 2021, more than five weeks before the Cyber Ninjas report was presented to the Senate on September 24, 2021. The prebuttal concluded that “security lapses, issues surrounding the chain of custody of both ballots and tabulation equipment, and evidentiary integrity problems throughout the entire exercise” rendered the review “meritless,” and that “any ‘findings’ or ‘conclusions’ reported from the Senate’s review . . . are unreliable.” Hobbs issued this conclusion before the audit report existed in final form, and while serving in her official capacity as the state’s chief election officer — the same office whose administration of the 2020 election was the subject of the review.