Maricopa County Election Department
© Olivier Touron/AFP via Getty ImagesA poll worker sorts ballots inside the Maricopa County Election Department in Phoenix, Arizona, on Nov. 5, 2020.
Media claims state law prevents the county from handing over ballots to an auditor

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has balked and manipulated information and the media to prevent a valid audit of the county's 2020 election results. Now the local media outlet ABC15 is assisting them by claiming it is against state law for the county to provide ballots to auditors to review.

It was reported yesterday that the Arizona Senate has requested an audit of the Maricopa County 2020 election results and will select the auditor themselves. You can't blame them. The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors (MCBOS), who oversee the election process in the county, is doing all they can to prevent a valid audit from being performed in the county.

A month ago the Arizona Senate voted to have the audit performed and the MCBOS sued them to stop the audit. Then once the inauguration occurred the MCBOS agreed to have their results audited but they would select the auditors. This was so the MCBOS could choose an auditor who would rubber stamp their results. The MCBOS even stated they would only use EAC certified auditors which limited the population of auditors to the two firms of their liking but then we pointed out that these firms weren't currently certified.

So yesterday the Arizona Senate decided to stop playing games and they decided they would choose the auditor to dig into Maricopa County results themselves.

Now the local Phoenix News outlet, ABC15, is reporting that it's actually illegal to hand over any actual ballots to an auditor. The last words in this piece are as follows:
As for that audit, what actually comes from it - likely not much, but it is important to know that state law actually prevents the county from handing over any actual ballots."
If the Board of Supervisors in Maricopa County wanted to get to the truth about the 2020 election results in the county they would be transparent. They wouldn't sue the Arizona Senate for requesting an audit, or agree to an audit but only from their preferred auditors (who they claimed were certified but weren't) or go to the media to say it is illegal to basically audit the ballots in the county, when it is not.