Arizona Sen. Ugenti-Rita receives threatening email over Maricopa County audit

PHOENIX — Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita revealed Friday she received a threatening email over the audit of 2020 Maricopa County election results, a process the Republican initially supported but has since denounced.

Ugenti-Rita posted the email (WARNING: Explicit language) to Twitter in response to a statement from Senate President Karen Fann, who condemned personal attacks against legislators over the Republican-led audit that has dragged on for more than four months.

The email said Ugenti-Rita, an Arizona Secretary of State candidate, “better do the right thing” or “feel the consequences.”

“My family’s safety is my #1 priority and I will NOT tolerate anyone going after me or my family,” Ugenti-Rita said. “Due to misinformation and the unmet expectations of the public surrounding the audit, threats like this will unfortunately continue.”

Ugenti-Rita in late July said that the Senate-commissioned audit was “botched.”

Fann, in her statement, argued the audit wasn’t a partisan issue.

“No matter where a person stands on the issue of an audit of the 2020 vote in Maricopa County, or any other matter of public poilcy, making a threat to a legislator or their family is completely unacceptable,” Fann said.

Sen. Paul Boyer and Ugenti-Rita were among the only Republican legislators to publicly oppose the audit, which kicked off April 23 in an effort to find irregularities that could support former President Trump’s false claims of a stolen election.

The lawmakers did so despite the fact that the ballots had been counted and audited twice already. Courts in Arizona and other 2020 battleground states have rejected dozens of election suits as judges found no evidence to support claims of fraud.

The review included a hand count of ballots, the analysis of voter data and a review of ballot-counting machines.

A final report was set to be sent to the Senate last month, but three members of the audit team, including lead contractor Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, came down with COVID-19.

A date for the release of the full report hasn’t yet been announced.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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