THE 2020 ELECTION WILL BE ALIVE AND WELL UNTIL 2024

 

        …This is the Cyber Ninjas that have been working on their “audit” since April.

 

This ballot review was ordered by the Republican run state Senate.

 

The private contractor called the Cyber Ninjas is still conducting a Republican-commissioned review of 2020 presidential ballots in Arizona’s largest county.  They also recently announced that it has collected more than $5.7 million in private donations to fund the, what they falsely call an “audit”, process.

The controversial ballot review, which included a hand recount of Maricopa County’s nearly 2.1 million ballots and a review of ballot tabulating machines, has been underway since April. It was ordered by the state’s Republican-led Senate, which agreed to spend $150,000 in taxpayer money to fund the audit. But the Senate has allowed these Cyber Ninjas, a Florida-based firm hired to lead the process.  They were also allowed to collect donations as well.

It has been clear for months that the lengthy ballot review, which was conducted by dozens of workers, some working nearly round-the-clock, was being largely financed by allies of former president Donald Trump. The newly released figures put that fact in sharp relief: More than 97% of the audit’s costs have so far been shouldered by donations from five organizations.  These groups were led by people who have promoted the false claim that the election was stolen.

In their recent statement, Cyber Ninjas indicated that $3.25 million came from the America Project, a group led by former Overstock chief executive Patrick Byrne.

Byrne became a key player in challenging the legitimacy of the election after the November vote.  He had joined the former national security adviser, Michael Flynn, and pro-Trump attorney Sidney Powell in a raucous December meeting with Trump in the Oval Office.  During the meeting, the trio urged Trump to appoint Powell as special counsel to investigate voting machines in key counties across the country.  Flynn now serves as a paid adviser to the group.

Last month, Byrne told The Washington Post that he had personally donated $500,000 to the Cyber Ninja’s effort and that his group was raising money from others as well.  Byrne also paid for the production of a film alleging massive fraud in the election that featured interviews with Doug Logan, the head of Cyber Ninjas.

Another $605,000 was donated by Voices and Votes, a group led by One America News host Christina Bobb.  (One America News is a right wing cable channel that promotes Trump’s false claim that the election was stolen.) Ms. Bobb has used on-air TV appearances for the pro-Trump network to solicit donations for the group.

The Post has reported that Trump’s political PAC raised about $75 million in the first half of this year, using his false claims to motivate donors.  However, they haven’t given any money to finance the Arizona ballot review.

(Word on the street has it that Trump’s PAC money will be used for his up-coming massive legal fees.)

The announcement from Cyber Ninjas, as to their financing, came as Arizona Senate President, Karen Fann, announced that the, so called audit, has concluded its public efforts.  The ballots will finally be returned to Maricopa County. (Please note that the county’s Republican-led board of supervisors has been deeply critical of the Cyber Ninjas’ efforts.)

Fann has said a final report of Cyber Ninjas’ findings is expected in August, but nothing has been decided as to who is going to pay for the new voting machines.  As it turns out, because the Cyber Ninjas were messing with the voting machines, there is no way to tell if a malware program was entered into any or all of the machines.  So the decision so far is that the machines have to be replaced.

Plus there is still a possibility that the key states legislations of Georgia, Pennsylvania, Florida and Nevada are also considering reviewing all their 2020 votes as well.

It just goes to show that the 2020 Election is going to be with us for years to come.

Copyright G. Ater 2021