A review of ballots cast in Arizona’s Maricopa County has been delayed after three members of the firm involved, Cyber Ninjas, contracted COVID-19, according to a Republican lawmaker.
Cyber Ninjas was expected to hand in their findings on Monday, but a majority of its team became “quite sick.”
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann released a statement on the matter. “The team expected to have the full draft ready for the Senate today, but unfortunately Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan and two other members of the five-person audit team have tested positive for COVID-19 and are quite sick.”
Fann added that lawmakers have received “a portion of the draft report” and will review it “for accuracy, clarity and proof of documentation of findings.”
Many critics have questioned the validity of the audit itself, including Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) and Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer (R).
Both describe the inspection as deeply flawed, especially seeing as the cybersecurity firm conducting the review has no previous experience conducting election audits.
Hobbs’s office wrote: “Despite frequent references to this review as an audit, the exercise undertaken by the Arizona Senate’s Florida-based contractor, Cyber Ninjas, fails to meet industry standards for any credible audit, much less for an election audit. The Senate’s contractors demonstrated a lack of understanding of election processes and procedures both at a state and county level.”
President Joe Biden won the county by 45,000 votes.
