Arizona Senate President Karen Fann to retire after 2022 legislative session

PHOENIX — Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, a key figure in the highly publicized audit of Maricopa County’s election results, announced Monday she would retire following the 2022 legislative session.

Fann, a Republican, has been Senate president since 2019 and has spent more than two decades in public service.

She will officially retire in January 2023.

“It has been a privilege to advocate on behalf of Arizona citizens in my twelve years at the State Legislature and the honor of a lifetime to serve as Senate president,” Fann said in a statement.

“I look forward to a successful session in 2022 advancing policies that benefit all Arizonans and then enjoying the life my husband and I have built for ourselves in retirement with our family.”

Fann serves District 1, which covers most of Prescott and surrounding areas.

She became a household name in the past year for her role in the Cyber Ninjas-led review of 2020 Maricopa County election results.

Fann announced her intention to launch the audit on Jan. 29, nine days after President Joe Biden was sworn in and despite the fact that Maricopa County had already approved plans to audit election equipment and software used in last November’s election.

On March 29, Fann announced that she’d hired Cyber Ninjas — the Florida-based cybersecurity firm with no previous election review experience — to lead CyFIR and two other contractors in what was termed a “forensic audit.”

The physical process started April 23 at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum and underwent multiple delays and extensions, generating plenty of controversy along the way before results were released five months later.

Fann has publicly maintained that she wanted the review done to find ways to improve election integrity, not as a means to overturn the election results.

However, many supporters of former President Donald Trump saw it as a step toward somehow returning him to office.

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