Arizona State Senate President Karen Fann issued a statement late Tuesday that former Secretary of State Ken Bennett will continue in his role as liaison for the Arizona State Senate audit of Maricopa County’s November 2020 election results.

On Monday Bennett discussed the possibility of resigning from his liaison role on the Phoenix radio program of talk show host James Harris after he was barred from the audit facilities last week.

Fann’s statement addressed that incident. Fann said:

This past week members of the media have asked why Mr. Bennett is not engaged in this part of the Senate ballot verification procedure. As Mr. Bennett was quoted in the media, ‘I shared some box counts of how many ballots were in each box, and that got leaked to the press and I apologized to Senate President Fann. I had promised that information would not be leaked to the press, but it indirectly got done, so that’s how I got barred from the audit.’

During the forming of the audit process, Ken Bennett offered his services as a liaison between the Senate and the auditors. As a past Arizona Secretary of State, Senate President and a family friend for decades, I couldn’t imagine anyone better for this position. Knowing the auditors were from out of state and would need someone to coordinate with the Senate, Maricopa County Supervisors and Elections department, and assist with the logistics in conducting an audit that is the first of its kind in the nation, he is an asset to everyone in the state.

When any audit is complete, the results are explained with supporting documentation of proof to the client. It is irresponsible to disclose partial information to the media since they are not “confirmed” facts until the audit is final. This only leads to confusion and misinformation with the public. For that reason, it is imperative anyone working with the audit is required to adhere to the rules of not disclosing unconfirmed information.

With the completion of the “hands on” work this week, the auditors will now be doing the analysis of all the data collected to submit the results. We sincerely hope Maricopa County will produce the missing documents and information we have requested for the audit to be complete and finalized. The voters deserve to know their votes are safe, secure and legally counted. To that end, Ken Bennett will be involved and a vital part of the draft and final reports to ensure their accuracy with his knowledge and contributions throughout the audit process.

You can read the full statement here.