WA official is right. Private audit of ballots in Ariz. should alarm us all | Editorial

A bizarre recount of votes from the November presidential election may be happening in only one Arizona county, but this is no small situation.

The precedent it sets is absolutely frightening, and Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman sees nothing good coming from it.

Wyman, a Republican lauded as an expert on elections, has been the point person for national stories — including The Washington Post, CBS and CNN — on why the Maricopa County, Ariz., election audit is so alarming.

Everyone who cares about democracy in America would be wise to listen to her.

Wyman told the Tri-City Herald that allowing a private company to take control of ballots gives political parties a new playbook.

“Whoever is in charge of the legislature can decide that if they don’t like an outcome they can make something up,” she said. “That is a scary road to go down.”

Of the nearly 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County, President Joe Biden received 45,109 more votes than Donald Trump. That lead helped push the state’s Electoral College votes to Biden.

Since the election, Trump has made unfounded claims of voter fraud, particularly in Arizona, which had been considered a reliable Red state. Although the Maricopa election results have been audited more than once, Arizona Republicans in the state legislature pushed for another review to the tune of $150,000 in taxpayer money — perpetuating Trump’s “big lie” that the presidential election was rigged.

The money was used to a hire a Florida-based company — Cyber Ninjas — to run the audit. Wyman said $150,000 isn’t enough to “knock on the door” of an election recount this massive.

So private money is also being used — and that has Wyman especially concerned.

She said there will be no accountability except to the people paying the private firm. Cyber Ninjas don’t have to be loyal to the public — it’s “all about the outcome,” Wyman said.

Supporting her doubts is a Washington Post story revealing that the owner of Cyber Ninjas has promoted claims that the 2020 election was tainted, and that Trump supporters have been raising extra money to supplement the amount funded by Arizona taxpayers.

Wyman said because the audit is not being run by a neutral third party, but by a private company run by a blatant Trump supporter, the Cyber Ninjas operation is starting from a point of bias and can’t be trusted.

Typically, election officials audit ballots daily and have a “chain of custody” to show accountability and provide a way to refute claims if any are made, said Wyman. It’s a process that shows what happened to each ballot at every step.

This isn’t happening with the private firm auditing the election results in Arizona.

The process has not been as transparent as it should be, and Wyman said one reporter allowed in the room where the audit is taking place noticed workers with blue pens and not red ones, which raises all kinds of concerns.

Wyman said red pens must be used because red ink can’t be detected by Maricopa County voting machines. But black and blue ink could be used to alter a ballot, so the recount was off to a shaky start from the get-go.

The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which has four Republican members, does not support the private audit, saying that several past reviews have already shown the election was run fairly, according to the Washington Post.

And yet, that wasn’t good enough to quell claims that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent. Senate Republicans in Arizona are sowing doubt by allowing a ballot take-over by a private firm.

Wyman said the recount in Arizona is privatizing something that government is supposed to do, and they are politicizing an administrative process.

Regardless of what Cyber Ninjas find, there still won’t be any satisfactory conclusions. The Arizona election results from November will stand because they already have been certified.

So all the Arizona election audit will accomplish is a chipping away of faith in America’s election process.

Wyman is right to be speaking out against members of her own party over this atrocious situation — and the rest of us should pay close attention to her concerns.

This story was originally published May 7, 2021 at 9:39 AM.