A tech company hired to run the hand recount of 2 million ballots in Arizona backed out: 'They didn't want to come back'
- Arizona's GOP commissioned an audit of 2.1 million ballots in the 2020 election in Maricopa County.
- Biden won the county in 2020. Trump and the GOP claim that votes were stolen to let Biden win.
- Wake TSI, hired to run the recount, let its contract expire, an official told the Arizona Republic.
A tech company hired to run the hand recount of 2020 election ballots in Arizona's Maricopa County backed out of the effort, the Arizona Republic reported on Tuesday.
The company, Wake Technology Services, began recounting some 2.1 million ballots on April 23 in an audit commissioned by the GOP-led state Senate.
The Republican Party and former President Donald Trump have claimed that votes were stolen from him in the November election. Joe Biden won Maricopa County by more than 45,000 votes.
The state Senate hired Cyber Ninjas, a Florida company run by a Trump supporter, to conduct the audit. Cyber Ninjas contracted Wake TSI to count votes.
The recount is still underway, but Wake TSI's contract ended on May 14, the same day the hand recount was expected to conclude; the company chose to let the contract expire, Randy Pullen, an audit spokesperson, told the Arizona Republic.
"They were done," Pullen said. "They didn't want to come back."
Wake TSI did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Pullen told the Arizona Republic that StratTech Solutions, an Arizona IT company, had taken over Wake TSI's work on Monday.
As of Monday, only about 500,000 of the 2.1 million ballots had been recounted, according to KTAR News.
Critics have pointed out several missteps in the audit, and some lawmakers, including Republicans, have labeled it a farce.
Observers have described the audit as sloppy and inconsistent and its workers as chasing proof of conspiracy theories.
State Rep. Raquel Terán, the chair of the Arizona Democratic Party, told Insider in April that the audit was a "sham" that was "fomenting the big lie that the election was stolen."
In early May, GOP state Sen. Paul Boyer, who initially supported the audit, told The New York Times that it "makes us look like idiots."
"Looking back, I didn't think it would be this ridiculous," he said. "It's embarrassing to be a state senator at this point."
Earlier in May, auditors were ridiculed after an official said they were using "5K cameras" to check ballots for evidence of bamboo, following a far-fetched theory that thousands of ballots cast for Biden had been smuggled in from Asia.
Also in May, Trump jumped on a claim that officials in Arizona had deleted an election database. State officials refuted it, and auditors later said they had found the files.