Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich received records related to “potential violations” of the state’s election laws.
A letter from Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs’s office — which was sent on Tuesday in response to the Republican attorney general’s request on July 14 asking for “any and all records … related to potential violations of Arizona’s election laws” — states the documents are partly related to a “pressure” campaign by former President Donald Trump’s allies regarding the 2020 election aimed at officials in Maricopa County, where a partisan audit is underway.
“Reporting by the Arizona Republic detailed a number of troubling communications from Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward and others that were directed at members of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors,” wrote State Elections Director Sambo Dul.
ARIZONA ATTORNEY GENERAL ASKS SECRETARY OF STATE FOR POTENTIAL EVIDENCE OF ILLEGAL VOTING
Some of the communication attempts “appear to evidence a violation of” Arizona’s election laws, Dul added.
Jennifer Wright, Brnovich’s assistant attorney general, requested Hobbs to provide “any information from your office regarding potential double voting in the 2018 or 2020 election.” Dul stressed Hobbs is still awaiting a report from the Election Registration Information Center regarding possible instances of people voting twice in the November election.
A campaign finance complaint Hobbs’s office received in April regarding State Rep. Mark Finchem and the Make Arizona Precincts Sound Committee was also mentioned in Dul’s letter.
The state representative’s “efforts to allegedly pay off his debts” related to an election fraud hearing the Republican helped arrange at the Downtown Phoenix Hyatt in November, which included then-Trump personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, raised questions about the sources of funding.
Finchem, who announced in late March he is running for election for the Arizona secretary of state, said, “I’m not too concerned about it because there’s been no interest in it up until this point,” in a statement to the Washington Examiner Wednesday evening.
“Katie Hobbs was asked to provide something very different,” Finchem added. “This is just more of the political garbage that we see from a secretary of state who has demonstrated herself probably to be the most partisan SOS that we’ve ever had in the history of the state.”
Hobbs is also running for higher office in 2022, seeking a bid for governor as Republican Gov. Doug Ducey is not eligible for a third term.
The Washington Examiner contacted the offices of Brnovich regarding Dul’s letter but did not immediately receive a response.
So far, four cases of election fraud have been discovered and met with criminal charges in Arizona, two involving Democratic voters and two involving Republican voters. There are fewer than 200 cases of possible voter fraud among the more than 3 million ballots cast in the 2020 contest in Arizona, according to an Associated Press report.
Trump has kept a careful eye on Arizona since the election, recently stoking attention among his following the audit in Maricopa County would find evidence to support his claims of widespread fraud during the general election.
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The Arizona Senate hired contractors, led by Cyber Ninjas, to conduct the audit, and a comprehensive report is expected in the coming months. Audit officials revealed more election materials are needed from Maricopa County to submit a complete report.
Senate President Karen Fann has said the audit is not about Trump’s election and is intended to revive confidence in the county’s election system.
Brnovich shot back at criticism from the U.S. Justice Department of the Arizona Senate’s audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County.
“Arizona will not sit back and let the Biden administration abuse its authority, refuse to uphold laws, or attempt to commandeer our state’s sovereignty,” Brnovich said in June.
