Elections experts who reviewed the findings of the Maricopa County “audit,” conducted at the behest of Arizona Republicans and done by Cyber Ninjas, found that the numbers in the final report were so inaccurate it was like they were guesswork, according to the New York Times.
“Maricopa Hoax: The Ninjas made up the numbers,” reads the headline on the experts’ website. The panel, made up of a GOP data analyst from the state party and two elections consultants from Boston, said the Cyber Ninjas missed thousands of ballots delivered to them at the beginning of the recount in the Spring. The ballots remained in 40 boxes on a pallet in the arena.
The audit, for which Cyber Ninjas provided state Republican senators a report two weeks ago, ultimately found Democrat Joe Biden defeated Republican Donald Trump by an even larger margin. Cyber Ninjas were paid $150,000 from the state, with an unknown amount paid by private donors.
The experts note that they have not seen all the available data from the audit. Arizona senate majority leader Karen Fann has withheld box- and batch-level ballot counts from release, data which can substantiate data.
In another questionable move, the Cyber Ninjas noted in a footnote to the submitted report that their own work would be inaccurate: “NOTE: Vote totals for the presidential and senatorial elections mismatch slightly primarily due to small differences in hand counts among the 2.1M million ballots.”