Dominion bashes the election firm running the Trump-supported recount in Arizona, saying it's already 'committed serious errors'

Jacob Shamsian
Wed., May 5, 2021,

A contractor working for Cyber Ninjas, who was hired by the Arizona State Senate, works to recount ballots from the 2020 general election on May 1. Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images 

Dominion criticized the firm recounting votes in Arizona as having "committed serious errors."

The CEO of the company, called Cyber Ninjas, previously tweeted conspiracy theories about the election.

The recount has been promoted by Donald Trump, who falsely believes he won the 2020 election.


Dominion Voting Systems sharply criticized the election firm conducting a recount of ballots in Arizona, saying that auditors have "already committed serious errors" and "demonstrated incompetence" during the audit.

The recount, which is expected to take weeks, is being overseen by an obscure firm called Cyber Ninjas hired by Republicans in the Arizona state legislature.

The company's CEO, Doug Logan, promoted conspiracy theories about the integrity of the 2020 election on Twitter in January, as the Arizona Republic first reported.

Dominion, an election technology company, supplied technology to a number of polling locations in Arizona and has been a target of false and convoluted right-wing conspiracy theories alleging it helped "flip" votes from then-President Donald Trump to now-President Joe Biden.

In a statement Tuesday, the company said Cyber Ninjas wasn't qualified to conduct a recount and that its leader was operating with "a false, pre-determined conclusion" that votes were altered in the first place.

"The firms conducting this so-called audit are not federally-accredited Voting Systems Test Labs," Dominion said in the statement. "The lead firm, Cyber Ninjas, has no election experience, and publicly available information shows its leader has helped spread debunked lies about election fraud."

A representative for Cyber Ninjas didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.

Trump has supported the audit and asks for updates about it multiples times a day, according to the Washington Post. He has demanded that Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey - a Republican he criticized for not supporting attempts to overturn Biden's victory - deploy the National Guard to protect the recount process, even though there have been no publicly reported threats on it. Trump advisers told the Post he's also asked about using UV light to analyze the ballots, which experts say may destroy information on them.

Contractors working for Cyber Ninjas examine and recount ballots from the 2020 general election at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix, Arizona. Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images

Trump has falsely claimed he was the true winner of the 2020 presidential election, including winning the state of Arizona, which he lost to Biden. His lies about the election led to the insurrection at the Capitol on January 6, when a mob of his supporters sought to stop Congress from certifying Biden's victory.

Trump's campaign brought two lawsuits in Arizona seeking to overturn the state's election results, as did Arizona state GOP chair Kelli Ward, a driving force behind the Cyber Ninjas audit. The cases were among the 40 Trump-linked election lawsuits that failed.

Maricopa County, the largest county in the state and where the Republican recount is taking place, has already conducted two separate audits of its 2020 election results. Both found that the results were correct and Dominion machines had produced accurate results.

In its statement, Dominion said it had numerous security measures in place for its election machines, including creating a voter-verified paper trail for each vote, using two-factor authentication that requires a physical key, and putting measures in place to ensure the machines don't connect to the internet.

A Cyber Ninjas contractor. Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images

"Local election officials securely store and monitor the machines at all times," the company said. "Thousands of poll workers, party officials, and election officials across Arizona watch over precincts on election day and guard tabulation sites in the days following."

Cyber Ninjas' insistence on secrecy during the recount process has alarmed independent election experts. On Wednesday afternoon, the company reportedly reached a settlement with the state's Democratic party to offer more transparency.

Dominion has launched a raft of defamation lawsuits against individuals and companies that promoted election conspiracy theories. Its lead defamation attorney, Tom Clare, previously told Insider the company is weighing filing a lawsuit against One America News, a far-right media organization that pushed false claims about Dominion.

The media organization had quietly deleted stories about Dominion from its website even as it publicly pushed false theories, as Insider previously reported. OAN is also a force behind the recount, helping finance the venture even as Arizona Republicans named the network an independent observer of the effort.

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