The Arizona Senate has hired an election conspiracy theorist and anti-vaccine activist to conduct its review of voter signatures on mail-in ballot envelopes in Maricopa County.
Cyber Ninjas, the Senate’s lead audit contractor, hired the same man to review images of all 2.1 million ballots cast in the 2020 election.
Shiva Ayyadurai, or “Dr. Shiva” as he is known to far-right adherents, was tapped for both reviews in the waning weeks of the audit process, records show. However, he had participated in discussions with Arizona Republicans about challenging the state’s election results as far back as November.
The Arizona Republic found one of Ayyadurai’s contracts among thousands of records the Senate released this week in response to a court order.
Senate President Karen Fann acknowledged the envelope review on Tuesday but would not name who the Senate hired to conduct it. She said nothing about the review of ballot images even though Cyber Ninjas gave a copy of the contract to the Senate on Aug. 6.