Cyber Ninjas Publish Arizona Audit Procedures
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Cyber Ninjas, a company led by a stop-the-steal election conspiracist, released the policies and procedures it plans to use to conduct the Republican-requested audit of the Maricopa County 2020 election results. Despite the firm’s efforts to keep this document secret from voters and the media, a judge ruled on Wednesday that they must release the document. The document is 191 pages long, but election officials say it still leaves much of the process Cyber Ninjas will follow to keep voter information secure and to accurately count ballots during the audit unclear.
The firm says they will examine ballots with UV lights, check them for folds in the paper and use a turntable to rotate ballots between three counters in a major departure from the state’s normal recount tally procedures. Cyber Ninjas failed to provide explanations for how they would count write-in ballots and did not provide a copy of the tally sheet counters will use, despite requests from media outlets.
Questions about how the audit will be funded have also arisen after Senate Republicans said they were unsure how much the effort would cost. An outside group, FundtheAudit.com, has sprung up to fundraise for the process, and would not be required by the Republican Senate to disclose the source of its donations. The group’s founder, former Overstock.com CEO Patrick Byrne, has repeatedly pushed debunked accusations of 2020 election fraud and said in an interview with a conservative news organization “we’re not going to let [the results of the 2020 election] happen again but don’t believe for a minute that 2020 is over yet. We have the very sharp, shrewd insiders who are making the moves that you want made.”