The firm hired to conduct an audit of the 2020 presidential election in Arizona’s Maricopa County reported raising nearly $6 million in private donations meant to help fund the effort.
Cyber Ninjas, a private contracting firm from Florida that is leading the effort, said that it raised $5.7 million, the majority of which came from five groups that backed debunked claims made by former President Donald Trump that the election was stolen. Their announcement was first reported by The Washington Post.
Arizona’s Republican-led state Senate also devoted $150,000 in taxpayer money to finance the effort, but most of the controversial firm’s work has been driven by those who believe that the election was stolen.
One group headed by One America News host Christina Bobb reportedly gave over $600,000 to the audit. Bobb recently asked viewers to donate to the effort while on air. (RELATED: Giving Voting Machines To Cyber Ninjas Raises ‘Grave’ Security Concerns, Arizona Sec. Of State Says)
The Maricopa County ballot recount comes after two election audits found no evidence of widespread fraud. (Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images)
Republicans voted to proceed with the audit in April despite multiple recounts and inspections that determined that the election was free of widespread voter fraud, the Post reported. President Joe Biden flipped Maricopa County, home to Phoenix, and thus narrowly beat Trump in the state to become the first Democrat to win there since 1996.
The audit has been harshly criticized by Republicans and Democrats alike. The Republican-dominated Maricopa County Board of Supervisors has repeatedly blasted the audit, often contradicting its questionable claims.
The Department of Justice said in May that the audit may be violating federal election law, and Maricopa County officials said they would scrap their voting machines after Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs wrote that the audit may have made them a risk to election security.
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