The Department of Homeland Security opened an investigation and has now obtained records related to Arizona’s 2020 presidential results. The move comes six years after the vote.
The Trump White House has slowly escalated its inquiry and efforts to obtain the 2020 election records. Earlier in January, the federal government seized 700 boxes of voting records from a Georgia election office.
But Arizona state law requires election ballots to be destroyed two years after the federal election takes place, making it a different ballgame than the Georgia case.
Local elections officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, also denied receiving a subpoena or complying with a federal request.
So, how did the FBI obtain records for one of the largest swing counties in the U.S.?
GOP lawmaker complies with the FBI
On Sunday night, Just The News, a Washington-based media site, published that “the FBI is expanding its criminal probe into suspected election irregularities” and that Maricopa County sent federal officials “gigabytes of electronic data.”
The next morning, Trump reposted the article on Truth Social and wrote, “Great!!!”
Although the report mentioned a subpoena, local news outlets stated that local county officials hadn’t received any such warrants related to election data.
The FBI did issue a subpoena, but to Arizona state Senate President Warren Petersen, not Maricopa County.
“President Donald Trump is 100% correct,” wrote Petersen in a post on X Monday. “Late last week, I received and complied with a federal grand jury subpoena for records relating to the Arizona State Senate’s 2020 audit of Maricopa County. The FBI has the records. Any other report is fake news.”
Petersen, a Republican, is running for Arizona attorney general.
What Petersen handed over are likely digital images of ballots and absentee envelopes from the 2020 race, as well as the tally of cast votes and other data compiled in the Republican-led audit in the Arizona state Senate. Petersen was one of the lawmakers to commission the six-month-long audit. The audit did not produce any proof of claims that the election was stolen.
The results from the 2020 presidential election in Arizona, where former President Joe Biden won by a little more than 10,000 votes, have been audited, challenged in court and investigated several times.
The Arizona Supreme Court has also affirmed that there was no evidence of misconduct or illegal votes, nor any instance of widespread fraud or significant errors.
Democrats warn election officials against sharing voter data
Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, in a post on Monday, wrote, “One of the Republicans hoping to challenge me this fall is reigniting his SHAM ‘Cyber Ninja’ 2020 election audit conspiracies to the disservice of Arizonans.” She called it “a disgusting politicization of government and a waste of time and (money).”
In an appearance on MS Now, Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, said his office hasn’t “seen this subpoena.”
“We don’t know exactly what information was turned over,” Fontes said.
“The election is well done and gone. My concern isn’t even with the publicly available voter data.”
He is more concerned about identifying details — like driver’s license, Social Security number, mother’s maiden name and date of birth — in these voter rolls.
“These are the sensitive parts of the information that I’m fighting to protect from the Department of Justice,” said Fontes. “They’ve lost their lawsuits to get this information in several states already,” he added, noting that aside from suing a dozen or more blue states, Trump’s Department of Justice is also suing Republican states over private voter data. Utah also faces a lawsuit, as do Oklahoma, Kentucky, West Virginia and New Jersey as of last month.
“We are not in this alone,” Fontes said.
Mayes and Fontes, in a joint letter, advised county recorders, who oversee voter registration data, not to disclose voter information to the DOJ, since that would “violate both federal and state law.”
They did not promise to respond with litigation but hinted at the possibility, as VoteBeat Arizona reported.
Former Maricopa County recorder makes call to move on from the 2020 election
Stephen Richer, a Republican, served as the Maricopa County recorder after the 2020 presidential election, overseeing election operations, including voter registration and early voting. He was also responsible for upholding the integrity of the county’s election processes.
Richer was named a “democracy defender” by Time magazine in 2024 and continues to advocate for transparency and factual accuracy in electoral matters.
In his latest opinion for The Dispatch, Richer recounted the many investigations into the election.
“Over the next few days, plenty of otherwise sensible people will say, ‘What’s the harm in having somebody take a look at election records?’” he wrote.
Richer made the case for moving on from the contested election results.
“People have looked — professionals and amateurs, over thousands of hours, costing millions of dollars. The years of investigations, tests, reviews, and audits are also worth revisiting because any future allegations would have to account for why all the previous probes didn’t uncover any material fraud or error. I would politely suggest that the reason is because no such fraud or error exists. The voters of Arizona chose Joe Biden more than five and a half years ago. It’s time to move on."
— Stephen Richer, The Dispatch