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Jen Fifield and Andrew Oxford |
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Published 5:28 p.m. MT May 4, 2021 |
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More
is emerging by the day about who has
access to Maricopa County voters'
ballots and private information as
Arizona Senate contractors attempt
to audit the November presidential
election. |
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Arizona Senate Republicans got the
ballots, voting machines and voter
information from the county through
a court order to do the audit, but
handed it all over to private
contractors who have declined to
name or have failed to be specific
about everyone who has access to the
information and materials and who is
paying for the work. |
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Arizona journalists have asked Cyber
Ninjas, the Senate's main
contractor, for more information
about the people counting the
ballots, and have scoured the
company's publicly released
documents for details about who has
access to the voting machines and
voter data, but have been unable to
confirm the identity of everyone
involved. |
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The
Arizona Republic has sought to piece
together the main players involved
or who have claimed some level of
involvement in the audit, including
a handful who have connections to
the Stop the Steal movement or who
echoed claims of election fraud. |
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This
article may update as we learn more. |
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Senate President Karen Fann |
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Senate
President Karen Fann and Senate
Republicans issued subpoenas to
obtain the county's general election
ballots, voter information and
voting machines, but they've left
carrying out the audit to private
contractors. |
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Still,
the Senate has liability for renting
the Arizona Veterans Memorial
Coliseum and for the voter
information and machines it obtained
in a court order. |
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Fann
appointed Ken Bennett to serve as
the Senate’s liaison to the
contractors. Fann told The Republic
early on in the audit that Bennett
was in charge of monitoring the
audit, as she continues to work at
the state Capitol as lawmakers
finalize the state budget. |
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Fann
has said the audit is not meant to
attempt to overturn the general
election results, but to find areas
where the state can improve its
voting process. |
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Fann
said last week that she remains
confident in the audit despite
concerns raised about the auditors’
processes and transparency,
including a lawsuit brought by the
Arizona Democratic Party and
Maricopa County Supervisor Steve
Gallardo. |
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She
said the auditors will have to prove
their case if they find
"irregularities." |
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Some
Republican senators have made up
their minds that there was fraud in
the Nov. 3 election. A website to
donate to the campaign of state Sen.
Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff,
blares an "expose the election
fraud” message and features a photo
of the recount. Rogers refers to
President Joe Biden as “Fraudulent
Joe Biden" in fundraising emails to
supporters. |
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Ken Bennett |
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Ken
Bennett, a familiar figure in the
state's Republican political
circles, has been at the coliseum
daily since the recount began on
April 23 as the liaison between the
Senate and the contractors
conducting the audit. |
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The
Arizona native served as Senate
president in the early 2000s and
later as secretary of state. |
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Bennett has overseen numerous state
elections, and is no stranger to
conspiracy theories. As secretary of
state in 2012, he threatened to keep
Barack Obama off the ballot unless
Hawaii verified he was born in the
United States. He explained the move
at the time as trying to quell a
concern brought by a constituent. |
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He has
used similar logic during the audit,
saying auditors’ search for
watermarks on the ballots could help
dispel conspiracy theories that have
sprouted around that debunked claim. |
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Bennett said he tried to make the
audit more bipartisan by asking the
state Democratic Party to offer up
someone to serve alongside him. The
party refused, he said. |
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Bennett has been asking questions of
the private contractors since before
the audit began. He said he knew
from the start that the $150,000 the
Senate committed for the audit was
not enough to cover costs. |
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On the
first day of the audit, as
contractors rushed to finalize
processes, Bennett was there, asking
how they would provide proper chain
of custody to keep ballots secure,
and other questions. |
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While
Bennett can question the auditors,
he has been clear from the start
that he is not in charge. |
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Doug
Logan |
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Doug
Logan runs Cyber Ninjas, the small
Florida-based cybersecurity company
hired by the Senate to run the audit
and hire subcontractors. |
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Logan
plays a key role in how the audit is
carried out, as he appeared to make
rule and procedural changes on the
first day of the hand count. When
The Republic raised concerns about
blue pens on the counting floor
before the counting of actual
ballots got underway that first day,
Logan checked into it and had the
pens replaced with green ones. |
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Cyber
Ninjas does not have any known
experience running election audits.
Asked about its experience, company
officials said in a statement last
week that it is the coordinating
firm of four companies conducting
components of the audit, and each
company has election experience in
the area it is working. |
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The
company statement also said Cyber
Ninjas was involved in an election
audit in Georgia. It did not provide
specifics. |
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How
Logan wound up leading Arizona's
audit is unclear. He didn’t submit a
formal offer to Fann, according to
the Arizona Capitol Times, and Fann
passed up an experienced auditing
company when selecting Logan. |
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Fann
had said she spent months looking
for the best people to run the
audit. Knowing that the people in
charge had to have knowledge of
topics such as election auditing,
voting machines and cybersecurity,
Fann said she thought it would be
best for a main contractor to
assemble a team of subcontractors. |
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The
company’s ninja-themed website says
it specializes in "all areas of
application security, ranging from
your traditional web application to
mobile or thick client
applications.” That includes ethical
hacking, training and general
consulting. |
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In a
short biography for a cybersecurity
conference, Logan said that he has
worked in technology for more than
15 years “including roles in
development, product management,
application penetration testing,
consulting and training.” |
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Logan
had posted a litany of
unsubstantiated allegations about
fraud in the general election to a
Twitter account, which is now
deleted. |
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"I’m
tired of hearing people say there
was no fraud. It happened, it’s
real, and people better get wise
fast," said one post he shared from
another Twitter user in late 2020. |
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Logan
was involved in efforts to try to
prove there was election fraud in
Antrim County, Michigan, according
to an Antrim County court document.
He was part of a team that examined
the county’s voting machines and
claimed in a report that they found
errors designed to create fraud.
State and county officials there
said the report was biased and
identified a slew of problems with
the team's analysis. |
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John
Brakey |
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John
Brakey, an election transparency
activist from Tucson who sued state
and Maricopa County election
officials in 2016 with claims of
election fraud, is among the
volunteer observers at the coliseum. |
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Brakey
lost his court fight with Republican
Helen Purcell, who was the county
recorder in charge of the
presidential preference election in
2016, when some voters waited in
lines at polling places for five
hours or more. |
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Brakey
runs Audit USA, a nonprofit focused
on election fairness. He refers to
himself as a progressive Democrat
and says that he works with both
sides of the aisle to advocate for
fair and transparent elections. |
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Brakey
said he is volunteering every day of
the audit for multiple shifts,
attempting to oversee the procedures
and provide advice. |
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Brakey
has stood at Bennett’s side during
two news conferences, and said he
has pushed for more transparency and
media access to the audit. |
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As the
audit got underway, on the first day
of the hand count at least, Bennett
and Logan both consulted with Brakey
on proper election audit protocol. |
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Brakey
told The Republic he advocates for
governments to save and publish
scanned ballot images to provide
more election transparency. |
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He
said this is an opportunity to
improve election procedures and to
advocate for ballot images, which
cannot be connected back to voters,
to be published online so the public
can do its own review. |
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He
said on Monday that he became
involved because he understands the
importance of this audit and "you
can't make change unless you are
sitting at the table." |
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Brakey
told The Republic he has threatened
to leave a few times as he has been
unhappy with the procedures. But he
said he is getting results, and that
he will stick around as long as he
can do that. |
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Bryan
Blehm |
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Numerous attorneys are involved in
defending the audit, but outside the
courtroom, attorney Bryan Blehm
often has been seen wandering the
coliseum floor during the hand
recount and talking to the
contractors. |
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He is
with Phoenix-based Blehm Law, a
general practice law firm, and
represents Cyber Ninjas in the
lawsuit that the state Democratic
Party filed to try to stop the
audit. |
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Gene
Kern |
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Gene
Kern is the co-founder and executive
vice president of Wake Technology
Inc., a Pennsylvania-based IT
company that Cyber Ninjas hired to
run the hand count. |
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On the
first day of the hand count, Kern
appeared to have the most say and
knowledge about the procedures that
the auditors were using to count
ballots. |
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Kern's
LinkedIn page says he has nearly 40
years of experience and he provides
services in project management, IT
consulting, computer networking,
network support, cybersecurity and
other fields. |
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Wake
TSI’s website does not list
elections or audits among the
services it provides. The site does
list help desk and IT service
management, managed IT, interim and
virtual executives, productivity and
cybersecurity. |
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The
Senate has said Wake employees
performed hand-count audits in
Fulton County, Pennsylvania, and in
New Mexico, and have assisted in
election fraud investigations since
the 1990s. The Republic was able to
confirm that the company performed a
hand count in Fulton County, but was
unable to confirm that it did a hand
count in New Mexico. |
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Anthony Kern |
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Gene
Kern's firm is responsible for
hiring people to recount the
ballots. Most of the people doing
this task are not public figures,
although one stands out: former
state Rep. Anthony Kern. |
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The
two men are unrelated, Anthony Kern
said. |
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Anthony Kern, a Stop the Steal
backer, has been spotted on several
days counting ballots. It is unclear
if he is being paid and how many
shifts he is working. |
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“Very
exciting to be involved in Arizona's
massive and historic election audit
which begins today. All of us should
want fair and honest elections in
our great State! The nation is
watching Arizona!” he tweeted. |
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Then-state lawmaker Kern, a Glendale
Republican, and state Rep.
Mark Finchem, R-Oro Valley, were
near the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
Kern lost his reelection bid for the
Arizona House of Representatives in
November and his term expired on
Jan. 10. |
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The
pair both signed a "joint
resolution" with many Republican
lawmakers at the state Capitol
arguing that Congress should not
accept Arizona's electoral college
votes, and their trip to Washington,
D.C., appeared to be an extension of
that campaign. |
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Finchem and Kern both have said they
were outside the Capitol when
rioters disrupted the certification
of the presidential election. And
both have denied any wrongdoing. |
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Kern
declined to comment when asked why
he got involved in the recount and
what his experience was like on the
first day of counting. |
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Arizona Rangers |
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The
Arizona Rangers are the most visible
security patrols at the coliseum. |
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The
uniformed law enforcement auxiliary
nonprofit organization assists law
enforcement agencies with tasks such
as event security and personal
security for government officials. |
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The
Rangers are assisting "law
enforcement agencies that are on
site" at the coliseum and providing
supplemental security, but are not
involved in the ballot recount
itself, according to Col. Mike
Droll, Arizona Rangers' state
commander. |
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The
Rangers launched a fundraising
campaign on GoFundMe on April 23.
The campaign does not say that funds
raised will go toward the support of
the audit. As of Monday, the
campaign had raised more than
$170,000. |
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"We
were surprised by the volume of
organic public donations we recently
received," said Bill Nordbrock, a
spokesperson for the organization.
"Any donations we receive allow us
to better serve the communities, and
youth initiatives in Arizona." |
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The
rangers are unpaid volunteers who
cover most of their own expenses for
training, equipment and travel,
Nordbrock said. |
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There
are nearly 500 rangers in 22
companies throughout the state,
according to the GoFundMe account. |
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While
the Arizona Department of Public
Safety said at first it was not
involved with security for the
audit, a couple of troopers have
been seen in the coliseum. |
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Liz Harris |
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Beyond recounting ballots, the audit
seeks to verify voter information
and votes, and may be relying on Liz
Harris for that. |
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Harris is a former Republican state
legislative candidate who started a
grassroots effort months ago in an
attempt to collect evidence of
widespread voter fraud. |
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Harris has told The Republic that
more than 4,400 people have signed
up to participate in her effort to
find abnormalities in voting in
Arizona, and she said her group has
been knocking on voters' doors
around the state for nearly four
months. |
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People have signed up for Harris'
effort through a website called
itsmellsfunny.com. Harris has shared
updates about the effort on YouTube
and Facebook, and most recently has
begun sharing updates about the
audit itself. |
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Harris initially told The Republic
that her group was helping with the
Senate’s audit, but she couldn’t say
on what part because of a
nondisclosure agreement. Harris
later said she doesn’t know what her
involvement may or may not be. |
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A Cyber Ninjas report, laying out
the scope of the audit, is not
specific about what company or who
is verifying voter information. The
report says the effort will be done
by a “registration and votes cast
team,” that has been doing
“non-partisan canvassing” in the
state to “statistically identify
voter registrations that did not
make sense, and then knock on doors
to confirm if valid voters actually
lived at the stated address.” |
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n a live video on Monday, Harris
said that she wanted to remind
people that the audit was not about
left versus right, but "good versus
evil." |
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She held up a sign that said, "May
Arizona be the first domino to
fall," referring to the effort to
prove voter fraud across the
country. |
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She told The Republic that
Republicans, Democrats and
independents are involved in her
group. The effort "has nothing to do
with 'Stop the Steal,'" she said. |
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Harris
in her live video on Monday said
that she has been talking to a man
named Bobby Piton since December. |
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Bobby
Piton |
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Bobby
Piton's role or influence on the
audit remains murky. |
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The
financial adviser from Illinois has
made claims of election fraud in
Arizona's general election and has
said he's talked with the CEO of
Cyber Ninjas in the past. Piton has
said he's not actively involved in
the audit, but that he'd be sharing
his analysis of voter data with
Logan. |
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“If
the team wants to use it, great,”
Piton said on social media. He said
if they want to use it they can, but
if they don’t, he will release his
results separately. |
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"I
don't know anything about a Bobby
Piton," Bennett told The Republic,
although he said he would check. |
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The
Republic also reached out to Cyber
Ninjas and Piton for clarification. |
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Piton
is the founder of investment
consulting firm PreActive
Investments in Illinois. He has been
talking about what he sees as
irregularities in Arizona voter data
since at least November. |
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He
joined Rudy Giuliani and others to
present election concerns to a
handful of Republican Arizona
lawmakers at a downtown Phoenix
hotel in late November. Piton, at
that meeting, said that his opinion,
from reviewing Arizona voter data,
was that between 120,000 and 306,000
ballots were cast by “fake people.” |
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His
method for coming to that conclusion
involved creating an algorithm that
separated Arizona voters into “five
types of voters” based on gender and
age and performing correlation
tests. |
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“It
was absolutely mind-boggling what
popped out,” he said during the
November meeting. |
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Mix
of fears, rumors: Social media
'monitors' track Arizona election
audit |
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He has
said in the last month on social
media that he is again investigating
Arizona voter data. It’s unclear
where he got the data for his
analysis. |
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Piton
has said he knows Cyber Ninjas' CEO.
In an April 23 YouTube video talking
about the audit, he said, “I know
Doug. I was working with Doug in
December on some things.” |
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In
the video, he comments on an Arizona
Mirror article that mentions his
name and involvement. He doesn’t
back down on his claim about fake
voters, although he said he called
them “phantom voters.” |
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“What
I’m going to tell you is — let’s
wait and see,” he said. “I’m pretty
optimistic about my research.” |
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In
another video posted April 26, Piton
said he is not formally involved in
the Arizona audit because he told
Logan that he wouldn't sign a
nondisclosure agreement. |
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While
in December he was claiming his
analysis already had found fraud, in
recent posts, Piton appears to
backpedal about the election
results, saying that he isn’t making
any claims of fraud just yet. He
says in the April 23 video that the
audit team isn’t “contesting
anything.” |
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“We
are just looking at the process for
how it can be better on a going
forward basis,” he said. |
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A
Daily Beast reporter called Piton
recently to ask him whether he was
involved in the QAnon movement,
according to his April 26 YouTube
video. In that video, Piton says the
reporter asked him if he knows Ron
Watkins, a conspiracy theorist who
posts on social media. Piton said he
reached out to Watkins in December
when he was first getting involved
in looking at voter records. |
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Piton
apparently is not doing his work in
Arizona. He said in the April 26
YouTube video that he was in
Illinois, but posted on Twitter two
days before and two days after that
he was working on the data. |
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“I
just completed 12 hours working on
AZ Data today,” Piton posted on
Twitter on April 24. “I had a dream
back in December that AZ changed the
course of American History and that
I assisted in this process. Time
will tell if either is True.” |
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Piton
has attempted to raise money for his
efforts several times, on GoFundMe
and GiveSaveGo, but his accounts
have been disabled. |
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Ben
Cotton and 'a number of additional
analysts' |
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A
third aspect of the audit is
examining the county's voting
machines. Ben Cotton is the founder
of CyFIR, a Virginia-based digital
security company that Cyber Ninjas
hired for that work. |
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Cyber
Ninjas said in its original scope of
work that the machine analysis would
be done by Cyber Ninjas, CyFIR and
“a number of additional analysts,
the identities and qualifications of
whom shall be made available to (the
Senate) upon request.” |
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Bennett said that, after getting the
voting machines from the county, the
analysts have gotten the data they
need from the machines and are doing
the analysis off-site. |
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Cotton's biography indicates he
spent 21 years in the U.S. Army
Special Forces, and previously
served as a board member at Brigham
Young University. |
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The
company’s chief executive is Andrew
Ward, who spent 26 years as a
partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers,
according to his biography. |
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The
company declined a request for an
interview about its qualifications
to conduct the Arizona audit. |
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“By
contractual agreement, we are unable
to speak with the press regarding
this topic until the audits are
complete,” CyFIR Chief Product
Officer John Irvine said. |
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The
company was involved in discovering
and investigating a high-profile
cyberattack on the U.S. government
several years ago. |
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In
2015, the Wall Street Journal
reported Cotton’s affiliated
company, CyTech Services, discovered
that a federal database was breached
while it was performing a
demonstration for the U.S. Office of
Personnel Management, or OPM, which
maintains employee records and
background checks for the
government. It was performing the
demonstration with its software,
CyFIR Enterprise. |
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Cotton
told the Journal that the company
was running a diagnostic on the OPM
network and discovered malware,
which OPM later said it had
previously discovered on its own. |
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CyFIR,
upon the federal government’s
request, began “providing
significant incident response and
forensic support to OPM related to
the 2015 incident,” according to a
subsequent report on the events from
the House Oversight and Government
Reform Committee. |
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CyFIR
has continued to work with the
federal government since then. |
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Patrick Byrne |
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Also
outside the coliseum, numerous
groups are fundraising around the
audit. Patrick Byrne, the former CEO
of overstock.com who has written a
book purporting to show how the
election was rigged, is among them. |
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Byrne
launched a nonprofit advocacy
organization called The America
Project that is raising money for
the audit, according to his posts on
a web app called Telegram. |
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Byrne
said on Telegram he donated $1
million to The America Project to go
toward the audit. |
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The
nonprofit's website says that it was
founded to "advance freedom and
preserve the American way of life,"
but Byrne said on Telegram that
"every penny you give goes to fund
this Maricopa audit." |
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The
America Project did not return The
Republic's call for comment. |
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Christina Bobb |
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Also
raising funds is Christina Bobb, who
hosts the Weekly Briefing on One
America News Network, a right-wing
cable media outlet. |
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Bobb,
who worked in former President
Donald Trump's administration,
announced on Twitter on April 9 that
she launched a nonprofit advocacy
organization called Voices and Votes
to raise money for the audit, saying
that the audit "is crucial to know
the truth about 2020." |
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She
announced later that day that she
had met her original goal of raising
$150,000 for the audit, and on April
15 announced that the organization
was making a second pledge. |
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Bobb
told The Republic that OAN is "not
affiliated in any way" with her
effort to raise the money, although
the network has allowed her to
mention her fundraising efforts on
air. She said she launched her
effort because she knew that the
$150,000 the Senate agreed to pay
Cyber Ninjas would not cover the
costs of the audit. |
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"I'm
curious to know the truth about our
elections," she said. "All the
weirdness that has surrounded the
elections, particularly in AZ, gives
me concerns that someone is hiding
something." |
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Bobb
said that the money she raises will
go "to the audit, not the Senate."
She would not share how much the
nonprofit has raised. |
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Asked
whether she considers herself a
journalist or an advocate, Bobb said
she considers herself "neither in
this instance." |
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"I am
an American who took an oath to
defend the constitution, and getting
truth is part of my duty," she said,
referring to an oath she took when
serving in the U.S. Marine Corps.
"If the audit says there is no
fraud, great. But Americans, not
just Arizonans, must maintain our
government, or we risk losing our
freedoms." |
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OAN is
providing the audit's livestream
services on azaudit.org. |
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Republic reporter Ryan Randazzo
contributed to this article |
|
Source |
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