Stephen Richer, the Republican County Recorder in Maricopa County issued a long report on Thursday in the form an open letter to state Republicans. He challenged the credentials of the reviewers, and defended his Republican bona fides.
I will continue fighting for conservatism and there are many other things I would do to support the Republican candidate for president. However, I wont lie about this election and I will not unjustifiably turn the back on my fellow colleagues and friends at the Elections Department, Recorders Office and Board of Supervisors.
Since late April, contractors hired by the Republican-controlled state Senate have been reviewing all the ballots cast in Maricopa County, which President Joe Biden won en route to flipping the state, along with examining election equipment.
Although the initial goal was for it to take 60 days, it has lasted well beyond that. Julie Fischer, the deputy Senate liaison, said that the contractor report that Cyber Ninjas was leading the effort told POLITICO. The state Senate will receive it Monday. A hearing will follow.
Nearly all of the opposition to the legislation has come from state election officials, including Hobbs, Richer, and the GOP-controlled Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
Missed deadlines and having the need to retract statements have been the only constants in this project, Richer stated at a Thursday press conference organized by Center for Election Innovation and Research. This non-partisan, nonpartisan organization works with election administrators. It is important to investigate the matter before you take anything that the Cyber Ninjas say as gospel.
The state Senate refers to the Cyber Ninjas' work as an audit. This label is almost universally rejected both by experts and election officials because of the Arizona effort's poorly defined processes and embrace of conspiracy theories regarding the 2020 election.
The review in Arizona was a disaster from the beginning. There has been disorganization and infighting. Cyber Ninjas' owner is a supporter for former President Donald Trump. He has also promoted conspiracy theories regarding the election. Officials claimed they were looking for bamboo fibers in the ballots. This is a reference to the fringe theory that some ballots were smuggled from Asia. The nonprofit was funded by an ex-tech CEO and correspondent of the far-right One America News Network.
Hobbs, who will also be running for governor next, was critical in an interview this week.
Hobbs stated that this isn't an audit. He noted that the Arizona review schedule has been constantly changing. We were merely bracing ourselves for the Cyber Ninjas conclusion's impact.
Her office stated in her prebuttal that any state Senates results or conclusions must be ignored and urged the leaders of the states to declare that the 2020 General Election was fair, accurate, and transparent.
Others have also criticised the Arizona review for being unprofessionally conducted, such as a report by Trey Grayson (ex-Kentucky Secretary of State), and Barry Burden (director of the Elections Research Center, University of WisconsinMadison).
Grayson and Burden noted that Cyber Ninjas' review is plagued by a number of problems, including uncompetitive contracts, lack of impartiality, partisan balance, inconsistency in procedures and unacceptably high levels of error. The Maricopa County review is not credible because it does not contain the necessary elements for a legitimate post-election analysis.
The Republican-controlled county board has also been engaged in a protracted battle with the state Senate. Dominion Voting Systems (the county's election vendor) and the board refused to comply with subpoenas issued by the legislature. This effectively dares the state Senate find the board in contempt. Some Republicans in the divided chamber say they don't support the Cyber Ninjas-led review.
This week, the county board stated that it wanted the state Senate pay $2.8million to replace the voting machines that were subpoenaed by the Senate. After Hobbs stated that the machines would be decertified due to chain of custody issues, the county leased new machines.
This comes amid strong national opposition to the post-election audit movement. A set of guidelines was approved by election officials at a meeting last weekend of nations secretaries.
Many of these guidelines are implicit rebukes to the Arizona process. They include specific timelines and only permitting a federally or state-accredited test lab to audit voting machine software or hardware.
Trump and his supporters eagerly awaited the Arizona review's conclusion. They will likely use any findings to support their baseless claim that the election was stolen. Trump claimed that the process in Arizona would eventually reveal that we won, but this was only the beginning of his baseless claims that the election was stolen.
Trump encouraged his followers that they should try to export the Maricopa Review to other states. Wisconsin and Pennsylvania Republican legislators tried to start their own Maricopa review, but they have not been able to get the support of Arizona.
Ben Ginsberg is a prominent Republican election lawyer who spoke out about efforts to undermine American democracy's faith following the 2020 election. He said that he hoped that the Cyber Ninjas report would not make too much noise and can quell the movement. He stated that if they aren't backed up, it will be an example to other states not to follow the dangerous path of losing credibility.
Richer agreed. The Cyber Ninjas are out there in common parlance for approximately four months now, and we haven’t seen this in any other states,” the county elections official replied, praising Arizona journalists and election officials in the state. We can all take a moment to be proud of ourselves.
At least one of these efforts appears to be failing outside of Arizona. Pennsylvania state senator Doug Mastriano is an ally to Trump and sought to open his own investigation.
According to the Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Mastriano seemed discouraged by the effort in a now-defunct Facebook livestream. He said that we are not in a good place right now. I offered my name to be involved in getting it done. I was stopped at the moment.
Nevertheless, election security experts believe that this does not mean the end of doubtful reviews of 2020's election.
David Becker, Center for Election Innovation and Researchs, stated that I am less optimistic about this because I see ongoing efforts across America. We'll need to remain vigilant, I believe.
