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- Cyber Ninjas received a $150,000 contract to review Maricopa County's 2020 election.
- The contract was awarded by Arizona's GOP-led Senate.
- Five months later, the company has yet to produce its findings.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
Arizona Democrats have lodged a formal complaint with the state government that aims to stop Cyber Ninjas from doing any further work on its controversial "audit" – and prevent it from receiving any more taxpayer dollars going forward.
"Nearly every day yields additional, publicly-reported facts concerning Cyber Ninjas' lack of qualifications and questionable methods," Charles Fisher, executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party, wrote in a letter to the Arizona Department of Administration, which oversees the operation of the state government. "The result is an aimless audit that flouts best practices and common principles of transparency and good government."
Since April, the Florida-based Cyber Ninjas has been conducting a highly irregular review of some 2.1 million ballots from Maricopa County, which President Joe Biden won by more than 45,000 votes.
Local Republicans, outside experts, and Arizona's top elections official, Democratic Secretary of State Kabie Hobbs, have all argued that the company's deviation from standard protocol for election audits – from scanning ballots for "bamboo" to a flawed ballot-counting process that could enable a miscount – mean that its findings should not be trusted.
The company was selected to lead the process by state Sen. Karen Fann, a Republican, despite having no experience in conducting election audits.
Arizona Democrats, in their August 23 complaint, say that's one reason why it should not be allowed to work any more state contracts, accusing Cyber Ninjas of having "irresponsibly held itself out as being capable of performing the job" and suggesting the whole operation is a scam that the company has no incentive to end. Cyber Ninjas founder Doug Logan himself declared the 2020 election "rigged" before being awarded the $150,000 contract, which has been supplemented by at least $5.7 million in private donations, most from a handful of wealthy supporters of former President Donald Trump.
A final report, originally expected this week, was delayed after Logan became "quite sick" with COVID-19, according to a statement from Sen. Fann.
Democrats are specifically asking the department, whose leadership is appointed by the Republican Gov. Doug Ducey, to investigate Cyber Ninjas for "debarment," which prohibits state contracts from being given out to companies that, among other things, engage in "unsatisfactory performance."
"Cyber Ninjas' involvement in Arizona demonstrates that it lacks experience, qualifications and integrity to be awarded another public contract," the complaint states.
The department did not respond to a request for comment.
Raquel Terán, a state representative and chair of the Arizona Democratic Party, called on Gov. Ducey to act.
"These charlatans should not receive a single dime of taxpayer dollars to sow doubt in an election that Ducey himself called safe and secure," she said in a statement.
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