Deal reached in Arizona election review

PHOENIX — Board members overseeing Arizona’s Maricopa County reached an agreement Friday evening with the Republican-controlled state Senate that will end a standoff over a Senate demand that they hand over computer routers for use in a partisan election review.

The Board of Supervisors announced that a special master will take questions from the Senate’s election review contractors and provide them with information contained on the routers that they say they need to finish the review.

Supervisor Bill Gates said the deal will protect sensitive information while avoiding a significant penalty the county faced if it had not complied. He called the deal “a win for transparency, and it’s also a win for protecting sensitive data in Maricopa County.”

Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich said in a decision last month that the county had to comply with the subpoena issued by Republican Senate President Karen Fann or lose about $700 million in annual state funding.

The county agreed to drop a $2.8 million claim it filed with the Senate after election equipment it handed over to the auditor was decertified and needed to be replaced.

Fann said the county settled under the threat of losing state money and called it “a victory for election integrity and the Arizona taxpayer.” She also said there was no damage to the election machines and that they were improperly decertified by Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

Hobbs said she concluded that the machines could no longer be used after consulting with experts, including those at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.