Arizona’s election integrity forensic audit of Maricopa County received $5.7 million in private donations since the recount began in April, the auditing firm announced Wednesday.
The Republican-led state Senate recount of nearly 2.1 million ballots and ballot tabulating machines originally budgeted $150,000 in taxpayer money. But the Florida firm hired to carry out the audit, Cyber Ninjas, is also permitted to collect donations.
“The announcement from Cyber Ninjas came as Arizona Senate President Karen Fann announced Wednesday that the audit has concluded its public efforts — ballots will be returned Thursday to Maricopa County,” the Washington Post reported.
Fann also stated the final report of Cyber Ninjas’ audit is expected in August.
The election integrity donations come from various sources. In June, former Overstock chief executive Patrick Byrne told the Post “that he had personally donated $500,000 to the Arizona effort and that his group was raising money from others, too.”
Another $605,000 was donated by Voices and Votes, a group headed by One America News host Christina Bobb.
On July 16, Breitbart News reported President Joe Biden was certified the victor of Arizona’s 11 Electoral College votes in the November 2020 election by the narrow margin of fewer than 11,000 votes out of three million cast. The majority of the state’s votes, 2.1 million, were cast in Maricopa County, which is undergoing the forensic audit.
Arizona Democrats have been deeply against the audit in which two Democrat members of the House Oversight Committee announced they intend to launch an investigation of the Arizona State Senate forensic audit of the November 2020 election results in Maricopa County.
A July poll indicates most Arizona Republicans believe the forensic election audit of Maricopa County will show that former President Donald Trump, not President Biden, won the state’s 2020 election.
