Bags of ballots that appear to have been shredded were found in dumpsters in Arizona outside of the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on Friday. Citizens are concerned the materials may be related to a forensic audit scheduled to take place in Maricopa County shortly.
In late February Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Thomason ruled a group of state senators had the authority to issue subpoenas governing those materials. That group of Republican senators issued subpoenas to the Maricopa County Board of Electors late last year demanding it to produce 2.1 million ballots used in November’s election and access to Dominion Systems voting machines.
The Maricopa County Board of Electors, which is majority Republican, sued to keep state legislators from obtaining access to those materials. They bizarrely claimed the state legislators lacked the authority to issue the subpoenas, a claim that was dismissed by Thomason.
“The Court finds that that [sic] Subpoenas are legal and enforceable. There is no question that the Senators have the power to issue legislative subpoenas,” he wrote in his ruling.
“The Subpoenas comply with the statutory requirements for legislative subpoenas. The Senate also has broad constitutional power to oversee elections. The Arizona legislature clearly has the power to investigate and examine election reform matters. Accordingly, the Senators have the power to subpoena material as part of an inquiry into election reform measures. As such, the Subpoenas have a proper legislative purpose. The Subpoenas also do not violate separation of powers principles. Production of the subpoenaed materials would not violate confidentiality laws,” he added.
Thomason also found the fact the ballots are required to be held under Arizona law for 24 months after an election lends itself to precisely these types of examinations.
“In fact, the statutory requirement that ballots be maintained for twenty-four months itself suggests these materials may be responsive to, and subject to, compulsory process long after an election has been certified and any contest period has lapsed. The County certainly provides no other explanation as to why ballots are required to be maintained for such a long period of time. Common sense suggests that they are maintained because they may be relevant to a legislative investigation, or perhaps a lawsuit, and that they might be subpoenaed,” he wrote.
Less than 11,000 votes currently separate Donald Trump and Joe Biden in the state.
Arizona lawmakers expressed shock over the bags of shredded materials found over the weekend. “We are awaiting confirmation that the shredded ballots found on Friday at the Maricopa County Tabulation & Elections Center are 2020 ballots,” said State Representative Mark Finchem (R) in a statement emailed to ITN. Finchem has been spearheading the effort to get to the bottom of fraud accusations in last year’s election.
“If they are, this will be the most outrageous, most disgusting thing I have witnessed while serving in the House of Representatives. The destruction of ballots and interference with the Senate subpoenas may validate the premise that there was significant fraud in our election,” the statement adds.
State officials deny the shredded materials were ballots used in the election.
“Maricopa County has not, and would never destroy voted ballots until legally authorized to do so after the 24-month retention period,” Megan Gilbertson, the election department’s communication director told the Arizona Independent.
Golbertson added that official ballots are stored in a vault at a completely different facility from the warehouse the materials were found outside of. “The vault is under the watch of a 24-7 camera,” she said.
Photo of shredded material courtesy of The Gateway Pundit.