Ive said from the get-go that Im relatively sure we are not going to find anything of any magnitude that would imply any intentional wrongdoing, the president of the State Senate, Karen Fann, said at the session. Rather, she said, the review is expected to highlight that we could do a little better job with the chain of custody of voting material and other technical aspects of conducting an election.
The review has nonetheless acquired a markedly partisan tilt, with senators employing a firm whose chief executive has spread conspiracy theories of an Arizona election stolen from Mr. Trump, and granting One America News and pro-Trump figures broad access to the process.
Among the ardent set of believers that Mr. Trump actually won the November election, the notion that the Arizona review will demolish all evidence of President Bidens victory has become an article of faith.
Jack Sellers, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, denounced the review on Monday as a grift disguised as an audit. Other Republicans in the county government have urged the State Senate to scrap the inquiry, saying it was an effort to undermine the November election and with it, Arizonans faith in democracy.
In the meeting on Tuesday, Ms. Fann and another supporter of the review, State Senator Warren Petersen, largely ignored such criticisms, while expressing frustration that county officials had decided not to cooperate with their inquiry.