The Arizona Senate has finally settled on a team of independent auditors to complete a comprehensive forensic audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County. The audit will include a hand recount of all ballots.
The Senate has contracted with Wake Technology Services, Inc. CyFIR, LLC, Digital Discovery, and Cyber Ninjas, Inc. to conduct the audit. Cyber Ninjas, whose principals have been supporters of the #stopthesteal movement and critics of the 2020 General election count in various states, will lead the team.
Like the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, who were criticized for their apparent selection bias in their choice of auditors, the Senate is being accused of selection bias by Democratic Party aligned consultants and media outlets.
In the case of the Supervisors’ audit, critics on the right side of the political aisle charged that the auditors were aligned with the County’s vendor, Dominion Voting Systems. Dominion has been the subject of criticism by election integrity advocates since at least 2016. While critics charged the Senate with selection bias, others argue the bias can help restore faith in our elections.
Alexander Kolodin, an attorney who has been intimately involved in a number of election integrity lawsuits praised the selection of the team due to the fact that “it gives confidence to those who believe that the election was stolen that a team is in place with the capability to conduct a thorough audit.”
“The selection of this team will give confidence to those who most strongly believe that this election had very serious issues,” said Kolodin. The nature of our polarized political environment is such that in any organization, one is likely to find a number of individuals with strong viewpoints. Yet, unlike the sham “auditors” hired by Maricopa County, no one in the team the Legislature selected has a prior business relationship with the manufacturers of the County’s election equipment. Dominion’s executives have made no secret of their political leanings. Democrats who never took issue with the fact that a company led by liberals was providing equipment used in Maricopa County’s elections have little ground to complain if a company with conservative leadership checks their work.”
“This is a team that has the confidence of conservatives. Should their scope of work be as voters were promised, conservatives can have confidence in their findings,” concluded Kolodin.
CyFIR is a digital security and forensics company specializing in enterprise incident response, computer forensics, and expert witness support to litigation.
It was CyFir’s founder, Ben Cotton, who discovered the Office of Personnel Management breach in 2015. CyFIR was also instrumental in the largest individual bank fraud investigation in the history of the IMF.
The team includes the Wake Technology Services group. Members of that group performed hand count audits and Fulton County, Pennsylvania and in New Mexico as part of the 2020 general election cycle. The Senate’s press release notes that Wake’s team members have also been involved with election fraud investigations dating to a 1994 case including one in which a team member worked closely with the FBI.
The auditors are tasked with validating “every area of the voting process to ensure the integrity of the vote,” according to the press release.
The scope of work will include, but is not limited to, scanning all the ballots, a full manual recount, auditing the registration and votes cast, the vote counts, and the electronic voting system. At the conclusion of the audit, the auditor will issue a report detailing our findings discovered during the assessment.
“We selected several qualified auditors to do the work. Each has a specific expertise,” Sen. Warren Peterson told the Arizona Daily Independent. “Together they create a team that will be able to conduct the most comprehensive audit ever performed in our country. If there was any fraud in this election, I’m confident they will find it.”
“I am pleased that we have movement on the audit and I look forward to receiving the report that is produced,” said Sen. Kelly Townsend. “We have wanted to have an independent forensic audit from early on, and I commend Senate President Fann, Senator Eddie Farnsworth, and Senator Warren Petersen for responding to the public and thoroughly working through the process to procure qualified and diverse auditors. I look forward to asking questions of Senate leadership regarding the audit so that I can report the details back to my district. Because this audit is independent, I don’t expect to be involved in the audit itself but will be diligently pouring over the results. I have a particular interest in the adjudicated ballots, the count of all the ballots, the machines and their accuracy, adherence to signature verification criteria, and answers regarding chain of custody of all ballots (whether voted or unvoted) and equipment.”
“Much is to be learned about what has happened in the 2020 General election, and opportunity exists to improve processes so that voters can be confident that their vote was secure and counted,” concluded Townsend.