Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo had heard enough. Half an hour into the board's consideration last month of a "forensic" election audit — where two outside firms would assess if the voting system used in Arizona last fall had been infiltrated and the results altered — the former state senator said his vote in favor "was a tough pill to swallow."
"We had our presidential preference election, not one complaint," said Gallardo, a Democrat. "We had our primary election in August. Not one complaint. Everyone was happy. We had our general election. No complaint, until a day or two after the general election, when some folks in our community and across this country started looking at the results."
Arizona had the second-closest presidential outcome of any state in 2020, with Joe Biden prevailing by only 10,500 votes — a margin of just three tenths of 1 percentage point over Donald Trump. That margin (only Georgia's was narrower) still did not trigger a recount. But since the Arizona outcome was certified, the defeated president's supporters, including several members of the Legislature, have pressed their attacks against the legitimacy of the results — raising questions about what proof, if any, will ever convince them, and whether the most crucial balloting data that could verify the results is being preserved and made public.
The supervisors governing Arizona's most populous county voted unanimously to begin the audit of their system's hardware and software. And in the state Senate, Republicans who supported Trump have demanded the county turn over all its voting machines and 2.1 million ballots.
The county has refused, even as Trump supporters are urging the Senate to seize the machinery and the paper. Trump's team, including his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, speculated in Arizona testimony that Trump votes were secretly turned into Biden votes. Those allegations are part of what has led Dominion Voting Systems, which made the equipment, to sue Giuliani for $1.3 billion. (The company has filed 2,912-pages of exhibits detailing Giuliani's allegedly false statements.)
This fight in Arizona centers on what evidence could be used to satisfy voters that election results are accurate and legitimate.
Seen from afar, Arizona is a national leader in transparent elections. As Sambo Dul, the state elections director, told the National Association of State Election Directors during its recent conference, every step of the process is "aimed at ensuring the security and integrity of our system."
Dul cited programming the voting system without being connected to the internet, using hand-marked paper ballots, the testing of machinery before and after the election — and the audits of reported results, including verifying results before certifying winners. These steps all occurred, and no hints surfaced that the results were wrong.