# Karen Fann **Karen Fann** is a Prescott Republican who served as President of the Arizona Senate from January 2019 to January 2023. She commissioned the [[2021 Maricopa County Presidential Ballot Audit]] and hired [[Cyber Ninjas]] to run it. A former mayor of Chino Valley, she served in the Arizona House for District 1 from 2011 to 2017 and in the Senate from 2017 to 2023. She was the second woman to lead the Arizona Senate. ## The audit - **December 2020.** Fann and Judiciary Chairman Eddie Farnsworth subpoenaed [[Maricopa County]] for its ballots, ballot images and voting equipment. A judge upheld the subpoenas on February 26, 2021. A separate resolution to hold the county Board of Supervisors in contempt failed. - **March 31, 2021.** She announced [[Cyber Ninjas]] as the lead contractor, at a bid of $150,000. She appointed [[Ken Bennett]] as the Senate's liaison. - **May 2021.** The [[Department of Justice]] warned her that planned door-to-door canvassing of voters could violate federal voter-intimidation law and that private custody of ballots could breach federal record-keeping law. She replied that canvassing had been "indefinitely" deferred. - **The equipment.** Fann signed an indemnification agreement covering county equipment "damaged, altered or otherwise compromised while in the Senate's custody and control." After Secretary of State [[Katie Hobbs]] refused to recertify the machines, the county spent $2.8 million replacing them and filed a claim against the Senate for that amount. - **The result.** The review her chamber paid for confirmed [[Joe Biden]]'s win in the county by a slightly larger margin. In November 2021 she announced she would not seek re-election in 2022. Her District 1 seat went to Ken Bennett. ## Significance Fann's role shows how one officeholder's procedural powers can be turned into a political product. A Senate subpoena, upheld by a court, got a contractor of the Senate president's choosing into the ballots. No election statute authorized that, and none could stop it. The answer the review produced was the one the official count had already given. ## See also - [[2021 Maricopa County Presidential Ballot Audit]] · [[Cyber Ninjas]] · [[Doug Logan]] - [[Ken Bennett]] · [[Warren Petersen]] · [[Kelli Ward]] · [[Stop the Steal]]