Recording of Fann talking of ‘audit’ raises questions

An audio recording released last week captures Senate President Karen Fann seemingly contradicting her past public statements about the outcome of the 2020 Maricopa County election.

The recording was released on social media by a progressive organization that targets Republican lawmakers who believe the election was stolen despite no evidence affirming that claim.

Fann in an interview Friday said the recording misconstrued her response to a hypothetical question about what actions the attorney general could take after finishing his review of the Senate’s report on its election audit.

In the recording, Fann said if Attorney General Mark Brnovich verifies the findings of the 2020 ballot review that she and Senate Republicans authorized, then Brnovich must take the matter to court.

“Because it’s not now just about was it (the election) fraudulent or not, but it was the fact that he now verified that all the information we gave him is correct and therefore the election is uncertifiable because we don’t know who won, and we need to have a new election, we need to do something,” she said in the recording.

She said in the recording that Brnovich’s job was not to decertify the election, but said his findings could lead to further court action. “It’s going to go all the way up the ladder,” she said. “Do not think that this is an easy one.”

Fann made the remarks on the recording March 11, several weeks before Brnovich released an interim report that questioned some procedures used by county officials. When that report was

released, Fann said, “We’ve wanted an entity with prosecutorial authority to validate the missteps our audit revealed, and this interim report does just that.”

But Fann, who led the Senate Republicans’ review of the election results last year, said Friday there were not grounds — at least not yet — to take any complaints to a court based on the interim results of Brnovich’s investigation of the Senate’s findings.

As for decertification of the election, Fann said there may be a way to do so, but that’s widely disputed legally and she conceded it’s not a clear path.

“There is no real clear process at this point for decertifying,” she said.

“I have no opinion yet because he has not finished the review yet,” Fann, RPrescott, said of Brnovich.

“We do have some procedural problems,” she said, which lawmakers are trying to address with new legislation.

The release of the recording prompted criticism of whether Fann was forthright about the intent of the Senate’s ballot review.

Fann has said the Senate’s review was done solely to identify ways to improve elections. She has acknowledged Joe Biden won the vote in Maricopa County, and the presidency in general.

In an email to a constituent last year, Fann wrote that Biden won but insisted the audit was justified because 45% of Arizonans believe there are problems with the election system.

Progressive activist made recording

The audio recording of Fann was released by Undercurrent, a YouTube show run by progressives who go undercover and that captured Fann’s comments after an election integrity summit in Phoenix in mid-March hosted by the Conservative Partnership Institute.

The progressive activist with a recorder was Lauren Windsor, executive producer of Undercurrent, which uses undercover recording techniques to target election-denying politicians.

Windsor delayed releasing the recording with Fann for over a month while she sought to record other Republicans talking about the 2020 election – she didn’t want to blow her cover, she said.

Fann: No imminent court action

In an interview, Fann insisted her position is consistent from the start of the audit in late 2020: to look for ways to boost confidence in elections.

She carefully chose her words when asked who won the 2020 election.

“If we count the ballots the way Maricopa County did, Biden won,” she said Friday. “In fact, we found 300 more ballots for him.”

Fann said Brnovich’s investigation is ongoing so it’s premature to take anything to a court.

“We’re not at a point of going to court,” she said Friday. “Who knows, we may never.”