8/24/2021- 2:30 p.m.
Washington – Arizona’s top election administrators have issued scathing indictments of a contractor who audited millions of ballots cast in the state’s largest county.
The two officials are seeking to undercut a final report from Cyber Ninjas, the firm hired by Arizona’s Republican-controlled state Senate, that they say will be marred by deep flaws.
Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer in separate reports castigated the inspection itself as deeply flawed – so much so that Hobbs argued it did not even merit the term “audit.”
Cyber Ninjas is expected to deliver its initial report Monday on the nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County in last year’s presidential election.
“The Senate’s contractors demonstrated a lack of understanding of election processes and procedures both at a state and county level.”
Hobbs detailed alleged flaws in security and transparency, as well as basic tabulation and procedural errors that are likely to lead to a miscount.
The outcomes Cyber Ninjas will report, Hobbs’s office said, “are unreliable.”Richer, the Maricopa County recorder who beat an incumbent Democrat in the same election the state Senate is disputing, framed his objections as an open letter to fellow Republicans.
“I believe in the court system. I believe in facts and logic. I believe that Maricopa County has many safeguards against widespread fraud.
Several of the Arizona Republicans who voted to authorize the audit have come to regret their votes and have publicly criticized the process.
Biden, the first Democrat since former President Clinton to win Arizona’s electoral votes, carried the state by just under 11,000 votes, or about three-tenths of a percentage point.
“Cannot think of two people with less understanding and knowledge on election audits,” Pullen wrote in a text message Monday.
He won Maricopa County, home of Phoenix and about two-thirds of the state’s registered voters, by 45,000 votes.
