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The Maricopa Board of Supervisors has voted to defy a subpoena and not turn over its Dominion voting machines for a forensic audit.

The board, in a 4 – 1 vote, decided to withhold the machines from audit and have opted to file a complaint in the Superior Court.

The Arizona Senate Republicans, on Tuesday, sent subpoenas to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors asking for images of all mail-in ballots that were counted during the 2020 election along with other records.

“The goal is to verify the machines did what they are supposed to do,” Senate President Karen Fann said.

But when the Board of Supervisors voted to scoff at the Senate subpoenas even some Republicans were furious at the Senate’s demands.

Republican Board Chairman Clint Hickman said that he, along with members of the county’s legal team and the Maricopa County director of Election Day voting, Scott Jarrett, answered all the questions of the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing and answered all of the lawmakers’ questions. He said he believed that the subpoenas were going to come no matter how they answered the questions.

“These subpoenas are unrealistic in their timeframes, an intrusion into the privacy of our voters, and want us to disregard the statutes that they’ve created,” he said.

Steve Gallardo, the board’s only Democratic member, was thrilled with the vote and praised those who testified at the hearing, where “any type of allegation of fraud or election tampering was debunked and knocked down.”

“I’m not interested in playing games. I’m not interested in this political theater. I’m not interested in trying to satisfy a small group of loud participants,” he said. “I want to be able to conduct an audit just to continue to prove faith in our election system. But we don’t do it in the middle of a political circus.”

Steve Chucri was the only board member who voted to give the machine to the Senate.

“I do not think it can be done in isolation,” he said of the plan to fight the subpoenas in Maricopa County Superior Court. “I’ve said that several times, and that we simply do what is before us today without coupling that with at least directing our team to start the beginnings of what an audit would look like, making sure that an independent, certified election auditor is available.”