Maricopa County to replace its voting equipment over "risk" it poses to elections

Officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, said Monday that the state's most populous county will replace the voting equipment that was turned over to private contractors for an audit of the 2020 election. 

The Republican-led state Senate took control of the county's 2.1 million ballots and voting equipment by subpoena earlier this year. In May, Arizona's Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs urged the county "not to redeploy any of the subpoenaed machines that it turned over to the Senate in any future elections" because it's not clear what procedures were in place "to ensure physical security and proper chain of custody." Maricopa County attorneys said Monday that the Republican-dominated county Board of Supervisors shares Hobbs' concerns. It is not clear at this point how much it may cost to replace the machines or who will pay for the replacements.