Founder of company hired by Arizona GOP to conduct ballot audit promoted election fraud falsehoods

The founder of the outside company hired by Republicans in Arizona’s state senate to conduct an audit of 2020 presidential election ballots has previously promoted election fraud conspiracy theories on social media.

Dave Logan, head of Florida-based Cyber Ninjas, the company hired by the Arizona senate to oversee the audit, was also part of a previous effort to overturn the election results in Michigan.

The Arizona Republic reported that a now-deleted Twitter account appearing to belong to Mr Logan posted a collection of uncorroborated allegations about fraud in the 2020 election.

He shared a post from another Twitter user that said: “I’m tired of hearing people say there was no fraud. It happened, it’s real, and people better get wise fast.”

“The parallels between the statistical analysis of Venezuela and this year’s election are astonishing,” Mr Logan wrote in December, seemingly boosting an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory parroted by Ms Powell that the country was somehow involved in stealing the election from former president Donald Trump.

Mr Logan also seems to have shared posts by former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, who espoused a number of debunked theories in an effort to overturn the election in the favour of Mr Trump.

One of the posts by another user shared by Mr Logan said: “With all due respect, if you can’t see the blatant cheating, malfeasance and outright voter fraud, then you are ignorant or lying.”

Mr Logan also seems to have shared posts by Colorado Republican representative Lauren Boebert, another prolific booster of 2020 election conspiracy theories.

The Associated Press reported last month that Mr Logan tweeted from an account dubbed @securityvoid in December, writing: “After auditing the adjudicated ballots... you may discover Trump got 200k more votes than previously reported in Arizona.”

The account stated that the owner was a “follower of Christ, Founder of @CyberNinjas, CTO of @uscybchallenge, Software Security Aficionado, and proud American”.

It was deleted at some point between 4 January and the announcement that Cyber Ninjas had been selected to lead the audit, the AP reported.

A court document from Antrim County, Michigan, shows that he was part of efforts to prove that there was fraud in the county. Officials on the state and county level said the report produced by the group Mr Logan was a part of was biased and that officials found numerous faults with their investigation.

After the announcement that Cyber Ninjas would be leading the audit in Maricopa County, Mr Logan said in a press release: “We are honoured to be chosen to undertake this task on behalf of the Arizona Senate. Trustworthy elections are a sacred American tradition. Our team’s goal will be to validate the results so we can confirm the effectiveness of existing legislation, or point out areas of potential legislative reform. We hope our findings will provide the election confidence that Arizona voters want.”

But Dominion Voting Systems, the company that supplied Arizona’s voting machines, quickly blasted the decision. A spokesperson said: “The firms selected to conduct this audit are beyond biased. Publicly available information shows they are led by conspiracy theorists and QAnon supporters who have helped spread the Big Lie. Dominion supports all forensic audits conducted by independent, federally accredited Voting System Test Labs — but this is not that. Over a thousand independent audits and recounts have taken place across the country since Election Day, and they all demonstrated the accuracy and reliability of our voting systems.”

Arizona Senate president, Republican Karen Fann, expressed confidence in the firms hired to oversee the audit, including Cyber Ninjas, telling the Arizona Republic: “These guys are well qualified, well experienced.”

The Independent has reached out to Cyber Ninjas for comment.