Draft election audit report: Joe Biden won in Maricopa County by more votes than originally tallied

Audit Draft report confirms Biden win in Maricopa County

FOX 10 has learned that a draft version of Cyber Ninjas' forensic audit report into the November 2020 election in Maricopa County shows Joe Biden did in fact win the county, and by more votes than originally tallied. FOX 10's Matt Galka reports.

PHOENIX - FOX 10 has obtained a draft version of Cyber Ninjas' forensic audit report into the November 2020 election in Maricopa County, a day before it was set to be presented to the Arizona State Senate.

We have confirmed through multiple people that the draft is close to the final version, including the Arizona Secretary of State's office, who said "they couldn’t confirm the authenticity of the documents," but showed us a similar report to what we have.

There are seemingly multiple versions out there, but all versions confirm the same thing: Joe Biden got more votes than Donald Trump in Arizona.

The draft copy we obtained tallied up the presidential race and then compared it to the Maricopa County official count from November. Cyber Ninjas' forensic audit shows Biden actually got 99 more votes during the audit count, and Trump received 261 fewer votes after the recount. Officials with the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office have provided FOX 10 with a similar report showing the same results.

The draft report is about 110 pages, with a number of recommendations for legislation to address perceived errors. Draft spokesman Randy Pullen confirmed to FOX 10's Matt Galka that the report was close, but he said there were enough anomalies in there that they still need answers to.

County officials react to draft report

County officials are reacting to the draft report's findings.

In a series of tweets, officials with Maricopa County say the draft report confirms that the county's canvass of the 2020 General Election was accurate, but said the report is "littered with errors and faulty conclusions about how Maricopa County conducted the 2020 General Election."

Maricopa County Chairman Jack Sellers reacted to the draft audit report with a statement:

You don’t have to dig deep into the draft copy of the Arizona Senate/Cyber Ninja audit report to confirm what I already knew – the candidates certified by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, Governor, Secretary of State and Attorney General – did, in fact, win. This means the tabulation equipment counted the ballots as they were designed to do, and the results reflect the will of the voters. That should be the end of the story. Everything else is just noise.

But I’m sure it won’t be. Board members told the truth in the face of angry phone calls and emails fueled by a coordinated campaign to shake Americans’ faith in the power of their vote. Will they accept the truth now?

Tomorrow I suspect we will be accused once again of not cooperating, failing to fill holes in the knowledge of the Senate’s chosen contractor. How could we cooperate with an inquiry that was led by people who have no idea how to run any election, let alone one in the second largest voting district in the United States? The Board approved the election plan, we hired and supported our election experts, and they produced a well-run and accurate election in accordance with Arizona law.

Those experts will digest this draft and eventually the final report. As we have done before, we will correct their errors and misrepresentations about the processes they don’t understand. I hope those holding on to their anger for the past ten months will see the truth and put their energy into supporting the democratic process instead of trying to tear it down.

Arizona State Senate President Karen Fan and officials with Cyber Ninjas both declined to comment.

Audit results set to be revealed Friday

Arizona Democrats react to release of draft election audit report

Senate Minority Leader Rebecca Rios, House Minority Leader Reginald Bolding, and Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo held a news conference to react to the release of a draft version of Cyber Ninjas' forensic audit report into the November 2020 election in Maricopa County. The officials findings of the report will be release to the public on Sept. 24.

Five people are scheduled to publicly outline the findings for two top Republicans in the state Senate chamber, including Doug Logan, the CEO of Cyber Ninjas, a cybersecurity consulting firm with no election experience. He served as the head of the review team despite his prior work to promote "stop the steal" election conspiracies.

Shiva Ayyadurai, who has developed a loyal following for promoting COVID-19 misinformation on social media, will discuss his review of signatures on mail ballots. It’s not clear why he is qualified to do so. Ayyadurai, who is known as Dr. Shiva to his fans, has a Ph.D. but is not a medical doctor.

Ben Cotton, a computer forensics expert, will outline his analysis of vote-counting machines. Cotton has walked back his allegation that a key elections database was deleted.

Also scheduled to speak are Ken Bennett, a former Republican secretary of state, and Randy Pullen, a former chairman of the Arizona Republican Party. Both served as liaisons between the Senate and the review team.

Friday’s report stems from a process that began nearly a year ago. Trump and his allies, after their claims of election fraud, were repeatedly dismissed in court, searched frantically for a way to block the certification of Biden’s victory on Jan. 6. Two top Republicans in the Arizona Senate came through, issuing a sweeping subpoena for all ballots in Maricopa County, the machines that counted them and a trove of election data. They said they would use the materials to conduct a "forensic audit."

A court battle over the validity of the subpoena delayed the delivery of materials until April, three months after Biden took office. The review was supposed to take about 60 days but has been repeatedly set back, most recently because Logan and four others on his team contracted COVID-19.

The review has energized Trump supporters who hope it will prove he was the legitimate winner of the election and lead to his return to the White House, despite extraordinary scrutiny finding no fraud that would affect the election’s outcome. There’s no constitutional mechanism to reverse the certification of Biden’s victory.

Fann, the Senate president, says the review is not intended to overturn the 2020 election but will find ways the Legislature can improve election laws.

The Associated Press (AP) contributed to this report.