Maricopa County defends election data audit in court

PHOENIX (CN) — Maricopa County supervisors on Monday rejected suggestions that a third-party audit of election data could leak personal voter information in a growing legal feud over who in the county controls elections.

Five months after suing to determine whether he or the supervisors have control of the IT department and, through it, the administration of early voting, County Supervisor Justin Heap now asks a state judge to block an audit of the department that is designed to answer that very question.

“The recorder asked for this, and now he’s being shut out,” attorney James Rodgers said on Heap’s behalf in a Phoenix courtroom Monday afternoon. “The recorder’s being deprived of his duties.”

While Heap agrees that an audit is necessary, he says the board went behind his back and hired a third-party, The Intercept Group, to conduct the audit rather than do it in-house. Giving sensitive voter data to a third-party could enable hackers to access and alter voter information and potentially impact election outcomes, Heap argues.



https://courthousenews.com/maricopa-county-defends-election-data-audit-in-court/