Maricopa County refuses to comply with Arizona legislative subpoena for election evidence

Arizona’s largest county refused Friday to comply with a subpoena from the state Legislature, going to court instead to fight turning over election evidence to a Senate committee investigating alleged ballot irregularities.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 to authorize the lawsuit in Superior Court in Phoenix, arguing the Legislature's demands are overly broad, could pierce voter privacy and constitute "a draconian abuse of power."

The lawsuit contests a subpoena from the state Senate Judiciary Committee, arguing the request for evidence was unlawful, could violate ballot secrecy and did not give the county enough time to comply.

The State Senate earlier in the week issued the subpoena ordering Maricopa County to surrender its ballot-counting machines, software, security logs, and more than 2 million ballots so senators could perform their own forensic audit.

The state’s electors have already cast their votes for Joe Biden after a canvass affirmed the Democrat won the state narrowly on Nov. 3.

President Trump and the state GOP have contested the vote, arguing there was fraud and irregularities in balloting.