Friday, Nov. 4, 2022
Did the Arizona election audit cost taxpayers millions of dollars?
The audit of Maricopa County’s 2020 election results cost taxpayers about $4 million, with the remainder covered by private funds from nonprofits and supporters of former President Donald Trump. Records obtained by American Oversight, a nonpartisan, nonprofit watchdog, indicate the partisan audit cost nearly $9 million in total operating costs and contract agreements.
Cyber Ninjas, a small cybersecurity consulting firm led by Doug Logan, was hired by the Arizona Senate to hand recount all 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County and forensically review electronic voting machines. Initially, the Senate authorized $150,000 for security contractors, yet the final cost of the audit expanded to millions of dollars, much of that to replace voting machines that might have been compromised in the process.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- American Oversight Records Reveal High Cost of Security Contractors for Arizona Election ‘Audit’
- DocumentCloud DocumentCloud
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.
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