在乔·拜登当选总统近11个月后，共和党领导的对亚利桑那州马里科帕县选票的审查发现，该县报告的选票数与帮助拜登获胜的选票数没有实质性偏差。
根据共和党参议院主席卡伦·范恩的说法，这次审查的总数在该县总数的“几百”以内。网络忍者首席执行官道格·洛根(Doug Logan)报告称，前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)的选票比该县官方拉票给他的选票少261张，而拜登的选票多99张。
“这是一个真实的说法。他们很亲密。我觉得具有讽刺意味的是，我们的国务卿和其他一些人称这是一次虚假的审计，你不能相信，你不能相信。有趣的事实是:事实就是事实，数字就是数字，我们从第一天起就这么说了。“这些数字很接近。几百年之内。”
“这从来不是为了推翻选举。这从来都不是关于取消认证，”她说。
尽管强制要求进行选举后审查，并对该县的选举结果进行了两次私人审计，没有发现任何异常或选举诚信问题，但共和党人仍在推进法院案件，试图证明马里科帕县的欺诈行为。
官员们在陈述中表示，当这些投票失败时，州参议院与一家私营公司签订了合同，由其自行进行审查，现在该公司最终发现的结果与马里科帕县报告的计票结果相似。
民主党人在周五下午的一份声明中否认了这一过程。
“这一虚假审计花费了亚利桑那州纳税人数十万美元，但从来不是为了增加选民的信任。这是关于推翻选民的意愿，对公平和安全的选举发动战争，并鼓励阴谋论来破坏美国民主。事实是这样的:马里科帕县根据州法律的要求，对选举进行了多次真正的审计，”参议院民主党领袖丽贝卡·里奥斯说。“说到底，美国人民在自由公正的选举中选出了乔·拜登，网络忍者和亚利桑那州共和党人无法改变这一点。”
拜登以10，457票的领先优势彻底击败了该州。马克·凯利还以78806票的优势击败了前共和党参议员玛莎·麦克萨利。前总统唐纳德·特朗普发布了一份声明，赞扬了该报告的调查结果，他延续了推动审计的一些阴谋。
尽管参议院的结果显示了与该县官方拉票相似的数字，但特朗普错误地声称审计显示了“在选举变化层面上不可理解的欺诈。”
马里科帕县主席杰克·塞勒斯(Jack Sellers)是一名共和党人，他对党派审查过程持批评态度。周四晚上，一份报告草案开始流传后，塞勒斯表示，结果并不令人惊讶。
塞勒斯在一份声明中表示:“你不必深入挖掘亚利桑那州参议院/网络忍者审计报告的草稿，就能证实我已经知道的事情——马里科帕县监事会、州长、国务卿和总检察长认证的候选人确实获胜了。
尽管该审查重申了拜登获胜的事实，但批评人士表示，它仍包含对选举程序的虚假陈述。
这一过程也因缺乏透明度而受到批评。在进行审查时，很难辨别到底是谁在负责。极右翼媒体通常有更多的机会接触《评论》及其官员，据当地媒体报道。
范选择了总部位于佛罗里达州的网络安全公司“网络忍者”进行审查，该公司没有从事选举工作的经验。根据响应法院命令公布的记录，她同意用纳税人的钱支付15万美元的费用，约600万美元由私人团体捐赠。
只有范和司法委员会主席在周五听取了陈述。没有预期的公众评论或提问时间。根据参议院民主党发言人的说法，民主党人不被允许参加演讲，也不被期望能够提问，他说该党已经“脱离了圈子。”
自审查开始以来，选举专家警告说，鉴于审查的方式不科学，审查过程有缺陷，结果不可信。马里科帕县记录员斯蒂芬·里奇是一名共和党人，他在一月份就职，写了一篇38页的报告揭穿关于选举结果的常见阴谋论和谎言。
“我花了11月和12月的时间，愿意等待一个有价值的诉讼、一个科学主张或令人信服的数据。但它从来没有来过，因为它不存在。数据显示，特朗普的失败是建立在对共和党选民不满的基础上的，”里奇在报告中写道。“而且2020年的总统选票地图几乎与2016年的亚利桑那州地图完全一致，只是略微偏向民主党。”
国务卿凯蒂·霍布斯(Katie Hobbs)是一名竞选州长的民主党人，她努力让官方选举观察员观看审查过程，她写了一篇自己的预演讲，称党派审查不符合“审计”的标准定义
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“此外，它未能满足选举审计的基本标准。由于这些失败，网络忍者或州参议院根据使用这些错误和不一致的应用程序和过程收集的信息发布的任何发现或报告都不应被视为可信或准确的，”她说。
GOP-led review of Arizona ballots reaffirms Biden's win
Nearly 11 months after Joe Biden was elected president, the GOP-led review of Arizona's Maricopa County ballots has found no substantial deviation from the vote count reported by the county that helped clinch the win for Biden.
The review's count was within a "few hundred" of the county's total, according to Republican Senate President Karen Fann. Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan reported that former President Donald Trump had 261 fewer votes than the county’s official canvass gave him, while Biden had 99 more.
"That is a true statement. They were close. I find it ironic that our secretary of state, and a few others have called this a sham audit -- that you can't trust, that you can't believe it. Well the interesting fact is: Truth is truth, numbers are numbers and we said that from day one," Fann said. "And those numbers were close. Within a few hundred."
"This has never been about overturning the election. It's never been about decertifying," she said.
Despite mandated post-election reviews and two private audits of the county’s results that showed no anomalies or election integrity issues, Republicans still forged ahead with court cases seeking to prove fraud in Maricopa County.
When those failed, the state Senate contracted a private company to conduct a review of its own, which has now ultimately found similar results to the vote counts reported by Maricopa County, officials said during their presentation.
Democrats disavowed the process in a statement Friday afternoon.
"This fake audit, which has cost Arizona taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars, was never about increasing voter trust. It was about overturning the will of the voters, waging war against a fair and secure election and encouraging conspiracy theories to destabilize American democracy. The facts are this: Maricopa County performed multiple real audits of the election as required under state law," Senate Democratic Leader Rebecca Rios said. "At the end of the day, the American people elected Joe Biden in a free and fair election and Cyber Ninjas and Arizona Republicans can’t change that."
Biden flipped the state blue with a 10,457-vote lead. Sen. Mark Kelly also ousted former Republican Sen. Martha McSally -- winning that race by 78,806 votes. Former President Donald Trump, who has perpetuated some of the conspiracies that drove the audit, released a statement lauding the report's findings.
Despite the Senate result showing similar numbers to the county's official canvass, Trump falsely claimed the audit showed "incomprehensible Fraud at an Election Changing level."
Maricopa County Chairman Jack Sellers, a Republican who was critical of the partisan review process, said after a draft report began circulating Thursday night that the results were not surprising.
"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," Sellers said in a statement.
Despite the fact that the review reaffirmed Biden's win, critics say it still contained misrepresentations about election procedures.
The process was also criticized for a lack of transparency. While the review was being conducted, it was difficult to discern who exactly was in charge. Far-right media outlets were typically given increased access to the review and its officials,according to local media.
Fann chose Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based cybersecurity firm with no experience working in elections, to conduct the review. She agreed to cover $150,000 of the cost with taxpayer money and approximately $6 million was donated by private groups, according to records released in response to a court order.
Only Fann and the chairman of the Judiciary Committee heard the presentation on Friday. There was no public comment or question period expected. Democrats are not allowed to participate in the presentation and were not expected to be able to ask questions, according to a spokesperson for Senate Democrats, who said the party had been "out of the loop."
Since the beginning of the review, election experts have warned that the process was flawed and results would not be trustworthy given the unscientific manner the review was conducted. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, a Republican who took office in January, wrote a38-page reportto debunk common conspiracy theories and lies about the election results.
"I spent November and December willing to wait for a meritorious lawsuit, a scientific claim, or convincing data. But it never came because it didn’t exist. What is there, is data showing that Trump’s loss was built on disaffected Republican voters," Richer wrote in his report. "And the maps of presidential votes in 2020 almost exactly match the Arizona map of 2016, except that it shifted slightly in favor of the Democrat."
Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat running for governor who fought to allow official election observers in to watch the review process, wrote a prebuttal of her own, saying the partisan review does not meet the standard definition of an "audit."
"Moreover, it failed to satisfy the basic standards for election auditing. Because of these failures, any findings or report issued by Cyber Ninjas, or the state senate, based on the information collected using these faulty and inconsistently applied procedures and processes, should not be considered trustworthy or accurate," she said.
