Investigation debunks bogus ‘audit’ claiming 300 dead people voted in Arizona in 2020
After spending months reviewing the 2020 election in Arizona last year, Cyber Ninjas, the firm overseeing the socalled audit said it believed nearly 300 dead people may have voted. It was one of a series of allegations the company made as part of an effort to sow doubt about the election results in Arizona.
It turned out not to be true. After investigating the allegations thoroughly, analysts found just one person who was actually dead at the time of the election.
“After spending hundreds of hours reviewing these allegations, our investigators were able to determine that only one of the 282 individuals on the list was deceased at the time of the election. All other persons listed as deceased were found to be current voters,” Arizona’s attorney general, Mark Brnovich, a Republican, wrote in a letter on Monday to state senate president, Karen Fann, who authorized the review.
Brnovich added: “Our agents investigated all individuals that Cyber Ninjas reported as dead, and many were very surprised to learn they were allegedly deceased.”
Experts have long said the review and Cyber Ninjas’ conclusion were misleading and untrue. Election officials in Maricopa county, the location of the review, released an extensive report earlier this year debunking the claims.
The letter came a day before Arizona’s primary, where baseless allegations about the 2020 election continue to swirl. Republicans who continue to deny the 2020 election results are on the verge of clinching the party’s nomination for governor and secretary of state.
Brnovich is seeking the GOP nomination for secretary of state, but trails Blake Masters, a Trump-endorsed candidate who has embraced lies about the 2020 race. Trump has railed against Brnovich for not doing enough to overturn the election.
Officials also investigated reports of dead voters from “other sources”, alleging 409 dead voters and another report flagging nearly 6,000 registrations as potentially deceased.
“These claims were thoroughly investigated and resulted in only a handful of potential cases. Some were so absurd the names and birthdates didn’t even match the deceased, and others included dates of death after the election,” he wrote. “While our office has successfully prosecuted other instances of dead voters, these cases were ultimately determined to be isolated instances.”
“We supported the Arizona Senate’s ability to conduct an audit of Maricopa county’s elections and understand the importance of reviewing the results. However, allegations of widespread deceased voters from the Senate Audit
and other complaints received by the [Election Integrity Unit] are insufficient and not corroborated,” the letter ends.