A to Z

Beset by delays, ‘audit’ team plans to submit full draft report to Senate next week

By: - September 9, 2021 12:41 pm

A contractor working for Cyber Ninjas, who was hired by the Arizona State Senate, works to recount ballots from the 2020 general election at Veterans Memorial Coliseum on May 1, 2021. Photo by Courtney Pedroza | Getty Images/pool photo

The team that conducted the controversial review of the 2020 general election in Maricopa County plans to submit its full draft report to the Senate next week, after several weeks of delays.

Randy Pullen, a spokesman for the self-styled election audit, said the team expects to submit the draft report to the Senate on Wednesday or Thursday. 

The report has been plagued by a series of delays. Previously, the team planned to submit it by Aug. 20, but that plan was derailed after audit team leader Doug Logan and two other members of a five-person team tested positive for COVID-19. Senate President Karen Fann announced at the time that a partial report would come several days later, with the remainder still to come, but the partial report was never submitted

When the “audit” began in late April, Logan said he expected it to be completed by mid-May.

A Senate team will review the report and recommend changes before the final report is issued. Pullen said the Senate team will meet on Monday to discuss the timeline.

One of the budget bills approved by lawmakers and Gov. Doug Ducey in July tasks members of the Senate Government Committee with reviewing the audit team’s report and recommending changes to state law based on those findings.

SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST.

Our stories may be republished online or in print under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. We ask that you edit only for style or to shorten, provide proper attribution and link to our web site. Please see our republishing guidelines for use of photos and graphics.

Jeremy Duda
Jeremy Duda

Jeremy Duda is a Phoenix native and began his career in journalism in 2003 after graduating from the University of Arizona. Jeremy Duda previously served as the Mirror's associate Editor. Prior to joining the Arizona Mirror, he worked at the Arizona Capitol Times, where he spent eight years covering the Governor's Office and two years as editor of the Yellow Sheet Report. Before that, he wrote for the Hobbs News-Sun of Hobbs, NM, and the Daily Herald of Provo, Utah. Jeremy is also the author of the history book “If This Be Treason: the American Rogues and Rebels Who Walked the Line Between Dissent and Betrayal.”

MORE FROM AUTHOR