'We're doing the right thing': Maricopa County announces it will audit its 2020 election equipment

The board of supervisors of Maricopa County, Arizona, voted this week to audit the election equipment it used in the 2020 election, following months of allegations of election irregularities there and elsewhere around the country. 

The supervisors voted unanimously in favor of the audit, the county said Wednesday on its website. Both audits will take place early next month.

"We’re doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way,” board Vice Chairman Bill Gates said in the announcement. "The audit will be conducted in a way that safeguards private voter information and protects the investment made by county taxpayers in the tabulation equipment."

Board member Clint Hickman expressed hope that the audit will put "to rest the notion that somehow we’ve got something to hide."

The county is utilizing two outside firms, Pro V&V and SLI Compliance, to conduct the audit. Pro V&V was at the center of some controversy late last year when it was revealed that the company was overseeing audits of Dominion voting equipment in Georgia even as it had overseen testing of Dominion's software for years.