PHX Reporter

Following the refusal of Maricopa County of the state Senate’s demand to access November election’s equipment and election returns, the Senate announced on Friday the hiring of an independent auditing firm.

The firm will be conducting its separate forensic audit despite the county’s assurance that it managed a credible election. 

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously on Wednesday to hire two independent companies to conduct an audit.  

"Maricopa County has chosen two companies to audit their election. Unfortunately, their limited scope does not fulfill the demand of our subpoena, which called for a deep forensic audit,” Senate Judiciary Chairman Warren Petersen said in a statement.

Petersen identified several steps they wanted for a comprehensive review.

“We need to do more than make basic checks on the machines to make sure they were working,” he said. “We need to check the ballots and ballot scans for abnormalities. We need to look at the machines to see if there was any manipulation. We need to make sure there was no remote or local access that made changes to the results. I’m grateful the president has chosen a firm that will do that work. Only then will our voters feel confident about the results of the election."