The unfriendly crowd Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita encountered at a Trump rally July 24 may prove problematic for her secretary of state run, but what happened after may complicate the 2022 legislative session.

Groups linked to Donald Trump and conspiracy theories about the 2020 election have put more than $5.6 million into the audit run by a man who himself has touted some of the same rhetoric.

In a sign the Senate audit, which was supposed to be only about the 2020 election results, is now expanding in scope, Senate President Karen Fann now wants documents from Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

When the Arizona audit began, the public had two avenues to receive information – former Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett and the Arizona Audit Twitter account – three months later, it has neither.

In letting the Senate’s audit drag on as auditors demand more subpoenaed materials, Senate President Karen Fann has managed to delay a fight within her caucus over how to handle the eventual results.

Months after the Senate lifted other Covid restrictions, doing away with requirements to wear masks or keep distance at meetings, the building remained locked and historically public caucus meetings continued being held behind closed doors.

In her second term as Senate president, Karen Fann controlled a one-vote Senate majority and oversaw a side audit of 2020 election results that drew national headlines and derision from late-night comedians.

There were plenty of issues taken up during the 171-day legislative session that ended June 30 that everyone knew would be contentious, even in January.

In some ways, the most important event of the 2021 legislative session didn’t even happen at the Capitol.

A plan to contact voters at their doors, which Fann nixed after the U.S. Department of Justice warned it could constitute voter intimidation, could be back on the table after the Senate’s contracted auditors insisted they need door-to-door canvassing to verify results.