Arizona Senate's liaison to ballot audit says he's stepping down
CBSN
Ken Bennett, the former Republican secretary of state in Arizona, said Wednesday that he is planning to step down from his role as the state Senate's liaison to the ongoing audit of Maricopa County's 2020 election.
Bennett has been one of the most public facing officials of the audit since it began in April. Republicans in the Arizona Senate ordered the audit to be conducted despite previous post-election audits that confirmed Maricopa County's election results. Bennett was locked out of the audit last Friday after he shared information about an ongoing third count of the total number of ballots cast in the county with an outside group of consultants. He said he cannot continue to be part of a process that lacks transparency.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.