US election conspiracies live on with audit of results in Arizona poll

Donald Trump has predicted the audit will reveal fraud and prompt similar reviews in other states he lost. Photo: Carolyn Kaster

Jonathan J Cooper and Bob Christie

April 26 2021 02:30 AM

Months after former President Donald Trump’s election defeat, legislative Republicans in Arizona are challenging the outcome as they embark on an unprecedented effort to audit the results in the state’s most populous county.

The state Senate used its subpoena power to take possession of all 2.1 million ballots in Maricopa County and the machines that counted them, along with computer hard drives full of data.

They’ve handed the materials over to Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based consultancy with no election experience run by a man, Doug Logan who has shared unfounded conspiracy theories claiming the official 2020 election results are illegitimate.

The process is alarming election professionals who fear the auditors are not up to the complex task and will severely undermine faith in democracy.

Conspiracy theories about the presidential election have proliferated across the US even before Joe Biden’s victory but have had particular staying power in Arizona, which flipped to the Democratic column for just the second time in 72 years.

Trump on Friday predicted the audit would reveal fraud and would prompt similar reviews in other states he lost.

Cyber Ninjas began a manual recount of ballots on Friday, a day after Democrats asked a judge to put an end to the audit. The judge ordered the company to follow ballot and voter secrecy laws and demanded they turn over written procedures and manuals before a hearing yesterday on the Democrats’ request.

He offered to pause the count over the weekend if Democrats posted a $1m bond to cover added expenses, but the party declined.

Election experts said hand counts are prone to errors and questioned a lack of transparent procedures for adjudicating voter intent when it’s not obvious.