The judge scheduled to oversee a legal challenge to Arizona Senate Republicans' 2020 election audit recused himself shortly before a planned hearing.
Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Coury issued an order Sunday afternoon that said he was removing himself from the case after the court received filings at 4 p.m. that mentioned new attorneys for the first time, including Chris Viskovic, who worked in Coury's office as an extern within the last five years.
The state Senate's audit of the 2020 contest includes a recount of the 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County and a forensic audit of the voting machines.
Democrats sued to stop the audit the day before it was set to begin, arguing that it violates state election security laws, but declined to pay a $1 million bond set by Coury on Friday that would have enacted a temporary pause in the audit over the weekend.
On Friday, Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat who is in charge of state elections, asked Mark Brnovich, the state's attorney general, to investigate whether there were any violations of state law, citing local media reporting about security lapses in the audit process.
Former President Donald Trump has emphasized the importance of the Maricopa County audit and demanded Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey send in state police or the National Guard to protect the team conducting the review.
The Arizona GOP voted to censure Ducey in January, along with former Sen. Jeff Flake and Cindy McCain, after the trio of Republicans either did not support Trump's bid to overturn the election results or endorsed Biden before the election.
No comments:
Post a Comment