The forensic audit that was conducted by the Republicans in Arizona and has faced tremendous criticism from experts and congresspersons across party lines is finally over. The process has recently been described as “botched” by a Republican senator. A long-held suspicion that the audit was financed by pro Trump supporters has also been confirmed by the lead auditor.

On Wednesday night, Doug Logan, owner and lead auditor finally released details about who was paying him approximately 5.7 million. The breakup is as follows:

• Political groups run by pro Trump supporters – almost $5.7 million
• Arizona Senate – $150,000.

The huge private funds came from the following popular Trump supporters and included

• Michael Flynn
• Sidney Powell
• Patrick Byrne
• One America News Network correspondents

Led by Cyber Ninjas, a software security consultant, the audit was considered as unnecessary, ill-conceived and badly executed for many reasons including some of those mentioned below:

• Cyber Ninjas has no election experience before the former president tried to overturn the 2020 elections
• Doug Logan, owner of the company lent support to the movement which was involved in spreading false conspiracy theories.
• He has made an appearance in the film The Deep Rig which claimed that the election was stolen from the former president.
• Logan gave the film crew access to restricted areas where the ballot counting process was taking place and the secure area where ballots were stored which questions the sanctity of the audit.
• Former Secretary of State Ken Bennett was locked out of the building during the audit. He quit and was reinstated after he got access to workspaces as well as procedures and data.
• When the company’s hand count of ballots didn’t match the county’s official tally, paper-counting machines were used to tally the ballot numbers but not the candidates who had won.
• Marico county officials said that “competent auditors” had already reviewed the ballot and another forensic audit was unnecessary.
• The company used blue ballpoint pens which are not allowed in audits as voters use blue or black ballpoint pens.
• There was a continued delay of the timeline to end the audit.
• Ballots were moved to different locations.
• Suspension from Twitter of the Arizona review’s official account as it violated the platform’s rules on “platform manipulation and spam” according to a Twitter spokesperson.
• Chasing conspiracy theories including looking for water marks on ballots and bamboo fibers from Asia that would show that fraudulent ballots were present.

These are just a few of the glaring lapses by Cyber Ninja. The entire process has been called partisan, “botched,” ill conceived, badly executed and more.