Democrats have launched a partisan investigation into Arizona’s forensic audit of Maricopa County via the House Committee on Oversight and Reform.
Carolyn Maloney, the Democrat chair of the Committee on Oversight and Reform, along with Jamie Raskin, the chair of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, sent a letter to the CEO of Cyber Ninjas, Douglas Logan, claiming that they were “concerned” about their role in the “highly unusual effort” of the Arizona forensic audit.
Maloney and Raskin cite “Cyber Ninjas’ apparent lack of experience in conducting election-related audits; reports that the company engaged in sloppy and insecure audit practices that compromised the integrity of ballots and voting equipment and were questioned by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and evidence that you and other individuals funding the audit have sought to advance the ‘big lie’ of debunked voter fraud allegations in the November 2020 presidential election,” as evidence that Cyber Ninjas could not be trusted with the audit, and therefore an investigation by Democrats is necessary.
JUST IN: US House Committee on Oversight and Reform is launching an investigation into the @ArizonaAudit pic.twitter.com/uvWAh8CYd9
— The AZ – abc15 – Data Guru (@Garrett_Archer) July 14, 2021
“Americans’ right to vote is protected by the Constitution and is the cornerstone of our democratic system of government,” the letter continued. “The Committee is seeking to determine whether the privately funded audit conducted by your company in Arizona protects the right to vote or is instead an effort to promote baseless conspiracy theories, undermine confidence in America’s elections, and reverse the result of a free and fair election for partisan gain.”
They claimed that there was a “clear, bipartisan consensus among county officials and outside experts that the election results were valid, that no significant fraud occurred, and that the additional audit served no legitimate purpose,” with “bipartisan” referring to anti-Trump Republicans in Arizona and across the country. Many of those who supported the President, and some who didn’t, including John Brakey, a progressive Democrat and election integrity expert, completely disagreed. (READ MORE: BREAKING: VoterGA Finds Thousands Of Fraudulent Biden Votes In Georgia, Has Photo Evidence Of Falsified Tally Sheets)
The letter also claimed that there was an “official hand-count audit [that] found a 100% match between paper ballots and voting machines.” However, this so-called “hand-count audit” was not a full forensic audit, and only went through 1% of the ballots, and only checked that ballots were supposed to be in the right places. Early batch efforts by the Arizona GOP even confirmed that some ballots had, in fact, been miscounted, looking through only 100 ballots.
In today's update, Chairwoman @kelliwardaz announces the findings from our investigation of 100 duplicate ballots, in which TWO votes were discovered to have been altered and removed from President @realDonaldTrump's total. pic.twitter.com/6Dg9zd2XGd
— Arizona Republican Party (@AZGOP) December 2, 2020
“In connection with this investigation, the Committee intends to study the need for legislative reforms to ensure the right [to vote] is protected before, during, and after an election and that third parties do not interfere with this right,” the letter continued, in what some may consider a threat by Democrats to shut down the Arizona audit and others across the country, using the investigation as a cover.
The letter comes on the same day as a bombshell from Arizona Senate Republicans, with Senate President Karen Fann confirming that the number of ballots tallied by the audit do not match those officially recorded and certified by the Maricopa County officials. Fann confirmed that the votes are currently being re-tallied by “independent machines” by the Senate before the ballots will be returned to Maricopa County.
The anonymous Audit War Room account, which reports on news related to audits, claimed that Maloney only sent the letter for political purposes, because “she is getting her ass kicked in polling” by her leftist primary opponent, Rana Abdelhamid. “Go audit the NYC election that just melted down.”
NY Congresswoman @RepMaloney sent a long letter asking for info about the audit because she is getting her ass kicked in polling by @RanaForCongress and thinks this will help her. Nope! Go audit the NYC election that just melted down.
— Audit War Room (@AuditWarRoom) July 14, 2021
The move from the House Democrats against the audit is not surprising to those who have followed the actions of the federal administration. Last month, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that they would “scrutinise” post-election “audits to ensure they abide by federal statutory requirements to protect election records and avoid intimidation of voter,” including the upcoming publication of “guidance explaining the civil and criminal statutes that apply” to them.
In a letter to Garland, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich slammed his comments as being “troubling,” and displaying “an alarming disdain for state sovereignty.” Brnovich said that the current “posturing” against the Maricopa County forensic audit did not “amuse” his office, adding that they will not” tolerate any effort to undermine or interfere with our State Senate’s audit to reassure Arizonans of the accuracy of our elections.”