Arizona Republicans testified before Congress that Biden won 'free, fair, and accurate elections' in Maricopa County

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Arizona GOP officials told Congress that Biden won a "free, fair and accurate election" in Maricopa County.

They were testifying on the legitimacy of the vote count following a GOP-driven vote audit in the county.

One of the GOP officials told the House that lawmakers being unwilling to accept accurate election results are a "threat to our democracy."

By Cheryl Teh

GOP officials from Arizona's Maricopa County testified before Congress on Oct. 7, telling the House that the elections in the county were "free, fair, and accurate" and prove that President Joe Biden won there.

Three Republicans appeared before the House Oversight Committee to talk about the results of the Cyber Ninjas audit in Maricopa County: Jack Sellers, chairman of the Maricopa County board of supervisors, Bill Gates, the board's vice-chairman, and Ken Bennett, a former Arizona secretary of state who liaised directly with the Cyber Ninjas.

"The election of Nov. 3rd, 2020, in Maricopa County was free, fair, and accurate," Sellers said to the House on Thursday.

Gates told the House that he thought lawmakers being unwilling to accept the election results was the biggest threat to US democracy that he has seen in his lifetime.

"If elected officials continue to choose party over truth, then these procedures are going to continue on, these privately funded government-backed attacks on legitimate elections," Gates said.

"As a Republican who believes in democracy, I dreamed of one day going to a nation that was trying to build a democracy and help them out. Perhaps a former Soviet republic like Belarus or Tajikistan," Gates added. "I never could have imagined that I would be doing that work here in the United States of America."

Bennett was also asked about the result of the Cyber Ninjas vote recount and reiterated to the House panel that the Ninjas' hand count had found more votes for Biden than were initially recorded.

The GOP-led audit of the vote count in Maricopa County confirmed President Joe Biden won the election and resulted in former President Donald Trump losing 261 votes. However, Trump has continued to falsely claim the GOP audit uncovered "undeniable evidence" of fraud.

Separately, a fake version of the Cyber Ninjas Arizona audit report is circulating in QAnon Telegram groups. This falsified audit document, called an "Executive Summary," bore a close resemblance to the official Cyber Ninjas audit but contained an additional line falsely claiming that Trump won the election and declaring that the "reported results are not reliable."

The fake document was even debunked by Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, who had previously touted election conspiracy theories in favor of former President Donald Trump. In September, Logan also issued a statement to Vice clarifying that the fake audit document was "absolutely false" and not the document he submitted to the Arizona State Senate.

According to The Washington Post, Logan was asked to testify before the committee but declined. The Post added that the panel had asked Logan and the Cyber Ninjas to provide documents, but that request was not fulfilled.

The Cyber Ninjas did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.

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