Man Behind Sketchy ‘Audit’ of Pennsylvania’s Voting Machines Has Ties to Failed Arizona Recount
Pennsylvania counties are still mired in dubious election “audits” two years after Joe Biden’s presidential win, and new disinformation about 2020 voting machines is circulating ahead of the midterms. Now, officials tell The Daily Beast they don’t even know who is behind the latest “report” purporting to show ballot fraud.
In September, a new “report” began circulating—as first reported by Pennsylvania’s WITF—that claimed 2020 ballots scanned on one of Allegheny County’s voting machines appeared blurry. (Blue voters rallied in the county to give Biden an edge in the swing state.) It claimed that some 10,000 ballots may have been affected. By the next day, right-wing conspiracy bloggers had seized on the report to declare, incorrectly, that the review had found “10,000 counterfeit ballots.” Several days later, Patrick Byrne, the MAGA-loving former Overstock CEO, published a blog post that claimed the report found “16,000 fake ballots” in Allegheny County.
By the time the Allegheny Board of Elections met four days later, the document had been forwarded to the county multiple times, records show, including by two locals who requested to speak at the meeting.
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