Election administrators from both parties are making their case that the audit of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County, Ariz., was partisan and ham-handed, even before it’s released.
They’re hoping to halt the momentum for efforts at similar audits in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and elsewhere.
The report from the Maricopa County audit was supposed to be delivered to Arizona’s GOP-controlled legislature yesterday. Parts of it were delayed, however, because three members of the five-person team leading the audit tested positive for the coronavirus and are “quite sick,” Arizona Senate President Karen Fann (R) said.
One of them is Doug Logan, CEO of Cyber Ninjas, the firm conducting the audit and a vocal proponent of pro-Trump election conspiracy theories. It’s the latest in a string of delays for the audit, which was initially supposed to be completed in May, Rosalind S. Helderman reports.
It was a shocking but not out-of-character turn for the audit.
The controversial audit has been marked by cybersecurity bungles, a lack of adherence to basic auditing principles and myriad other self-inflicted wounds.
“As a Republican and as an election administrator, I worry about our country and I worry about the future of my party,” Trey Grayson, a former Republican secretary of state from Kentucky, said in a call with reporters. “I don’t want bad ideas like this spreading to other states.”