AZ Senate Chooses Independent Team Of Experts For Maricopa Election Audit

  • by:
  • Source: UncoverDC
  • 09/19/2023

The Arizona State Senate has released its "team of independent auditors to complete a comprehensive, full forensic audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, including a hand recount of all ballots," according to a press release issued by Senate Leader Karen Fann (R-1). Fann had originally called for an audit of the 2.1 million ballots in Maricopa County in a press release on Dec. 4. In that same press release, House Majority Leader Petersen stated that "a significant number of voters believe that fraud occurred and with the number of irregularities it is easy to understand why."

Arizona is one of the states that has been heavily litigated concerning the integrity of its election. UncoverDC has written several articles on the Nov. 3 election and a follow-up report on Dec. 2 after Governor Ducey (R-AZ) certified the election despite alleged evidence of fraud, as explained by pattern analysis engineer Dr. Shiva in a November election integrity hearing featured below. Dr. Peter Navarro also documented his extensive investigation of alleged "widespread fraud" in the 2020 election.

The Senate has for months been vetting forensic auditors. Their mission: to find a respected, experienced, and independent set of experts to settle the question of alleged fraud in the Maricopa County 2020 election. They settled this week on a team consisting of Wake Technology Services Inc., CyFIR, LLC, Digital Discovery, and Cyber Ninjas, Inc. to conduct the audit. Cyber Ninjas will lead the team. As reported by UncoverDC on Feb. 9, a  post-election survey was performed by Liz Harris and her team prior to the audit to perform a door-to-door canvassing of voters to confirm registered voters. The canvass will be part of the information reviewed in the audit because it discovered that many who voted either didn't live in the county or the addresses were incorrect.

Forensic examination of the controversial Dominion Voting Systems (DVS) machines and software will be part of the audit. According to local news outlet AZCentral, DVS is going after GOP State Chairwoman Kelli Ward and others for defamation, claiming that their voting systems are secure and free of fraud. DVS issued a statement via email referring to one of the experts from Cyber Ninjas selected by the county and is pictured below:

April 1 Dominion Voting Systems statement

In response to that statement by DVS, the Maricopa Board of Supervisors called an emergency meeting the next day on April 1:

According to its website, Cyber Ninjas specializes in mobile and web application security for governmental entities and financial services. Doug Logan is CEO and Principal Consultant for the Sarasota-based cybersecurity firm. He was a winner of a SANS Difference Makers Award award in 2015. The SANS website describes its organization as a leader in the training, ongoing education, and certification of cybersecurity professionals, arming them with the "practical skills and knowledge they need to make our world a safer place." Notably, Logan is listed as an expert witness on an Antrim County, Michigan Lawsuit covered extensively by UncoverDC on Dec. 7 and, most recently, on March 24.

Local news outlets reported that Logan is a "promoter of baseless conspiracy theories alleging widespread election fraud." This comprehensive forensic audit should prove those claims definitively for Maricopa County and may well become the standard for other states that are in the midst of similar investigations.

CyFIR's website states that the company, based in Ashburn, VA., has the "digital security and forensic investigation capabilities to detect malware and security vulnerabilities, conducting internal investigations, eDiscovery, protecting intellectual property, and more." The executive team for the company is headed by Founder Ben Cotton and CEO Andrew Ward.

In 2019, according to the PRNewswire, the company "launched its CyFIR Investigator remote digital forensic analysis and incident response triage platform on the AWS (Amazon Web Services) Marketplace, making cyber investigations accessible to companies of all sizes. CyFIR Investigator provides scalable enterprise forensic capabilities on-demand, by the hour, and without heavy up-front costs. Its remote installation, investigation, and remediation capabilities c an be deployed worldwide in minutes rather than weeks or months." Cotton told PRNewswire that "CyFIR Investigator has completely disrupted the digital forensics industry by becoming the only live, full-visibility response and investigation platform in the cloud...This is a game-changer for businesses of all sizes because you pay only for the time that you need without large up-front licensing fees."

Based in West Chester, PA, Wake Technology Services has been involved in hand counts in Pennsylvania and New Mexico. According to the press release, team members also worked with the FBI during an important election fraud investigation case in 1994. Wake Technology Systems employs "intelligence analysts and forensic investigators from a variety of industries."

Arizona State Rep. Mark Finchem released the following statement to UncoverDC on Thursday. "Many of us legislator’s in the Senate and House are pleased to see progress. The forensic audit is a crucial step in restoring voter confidence in the election system. We look forward to the audit report and the factual information it will contain. I expect it will be thorough and revealing.” 

Finchem was a guest on the Dark to Light Podcast with Frank and Beanz on March 3. Finchem has been a loyal advocate for the people of Arizona, as reported in an UncoverDC article on March 4. In that article, he reiterated his commitment to the truth with his pledge to ensure that Arizonans can expect integrity in their elections. “If we do not fully understand the fraud vectors, the direction from which fraud came into our election, our next election will be plagued with the same garbage.” Finchem also said that if no fraud is found, he will “celebrate.” On March 29, AZCentral reported that Finchem filed a statement of interest to run for Secretary of State— the top election official in the state of Arizona.

The forensic audit itself will thoroughly scrutinize every step of the voting process, both physical and digital, including but not limited to investigating and reconciling vote tallies, looking at duplicate and invalid votes, physical inspections of ballots, forensic evaluation of the machines, review of tabulators and software, ballot artifacts. Many of the particulars of the actual investigation have not yet been made public. A report should follow in about 60 days, according to the press release. The audit will be completely independent and none of the leadership will be engaged directly in the process.

*For more information on how to actively participate in holding your elected officials accountable, local initiatives, and election integrity, please see the following suggestions:

The Precinct ProjectLook Ahead AmericaEngage the RightTrue the VoteThe Leadership InstituteHeritage Action SentinelsScott Presler, Sidney Powell’s Defending The Republic

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