Arizona Senate Votes Down Bill to Audit Every Election

The Arizona Senate on Wednesday voted down a plan to require the state auditor general to conduct an exhaustive review following every election.

It was one of four election bills that failed on Wednesday because they had insufficient support from Republicans, and Democrats were united in opposition. Three others were killed on Monday as the Legislature culls the dozens of election bills Republicans introduced this year, many in response former President Donald Trump's contention that the 2020 election was marred by massive election fraud.

The audit bill would have appropriated nearly $4 million a year for a staff of 29.25 full-time equivalent positions to conduct an audit of nearly every aspect of the election in Maricopa and Pima counties as well as two randomly selected smaller counties.

The bill would have essentially made the Senate Republicans' 2020 election review a permanent fixture following elections, putting it in the hands of a respected government agency.

GOP Senate leaders hired a team of Trump supporters to conduct a forensic audit of the election that the former president disputes. The review claimed a number of irregularities.

“This sets up a process to make sure that the laws are being followed,” Sen. Sonny Borrelli, a Republican from Lake Havasu City, said. “Our citizens demand it. They're entitled to it. The elections belong to them, not to us.”

Borrelli cited a number of GOP grievances with President Joe Biden, including gas prices, U.S. servicemembers killed during the pullout from Afghanistan, and immigration, saying “elections have consequences.”

The measure failed when all 14 Democrats and two Republicans voted against it, Sens. Paul Boyer of Glendale and Michelle Ugenti-Rita of Scottsdale. Both have been publicly critical of their party's election review, which they alleged was deeply flawed.

Boyer said the bill would leave the auditor general with an expensive, unnecessary task and could potentially detract from its existing duties of auditing government agencies.

Boyer and Ugenti-Rita also joined Democrats to defeat a separate bill making ballot images public records, which Ugenti-Rita said was duplicative of other legislation and would cause confusion. Other bills that failed include measures addressing the maintenance of voter rolls and the security of ballot machines.

Lawmakers did vote nearly unanimously to create a system allowing early voters to track the status of their ballot. Such a system already exists in Maricopa and Pima counties but is not available statewide. A bill making it easier for visually impaired votes to cast a mail ballot also passed without opposition.