Viral Claims Regarding Arizona Senate Audit and 74,000 Ballots Resurface Despite Official Findings
Reports have resurfaced circulating claims that the Arizona Senate’s audit of the 2020 election results proved former President Donald Trump was the legitimate winner. These reports specifically cite an allegation that 74,243 mail-in ballots were tabulated in Maricopa County despite there allegedly being no record of them ever having been sent to voters.
While these figures are frequently cited on social media as evidence of a “game-changer,” a closer examination of the official audit documents and election data provides critical context that challenges this narrative. The comprehensive review, conducted by the firm Cyber Ninjas on behalf of the Arizona Senate GOP, released its final report in September 2021. Contrary to the claim that the audit overturned the election results, the auditors’ hand recount confirmed President Joe Biden’s victory in Maricopa County. In fact, the final tally from the audit found 99 additional votes for Biden and 261 fewer votes for Trump compared to the county’s original certified count.
The specific allegation regarding the 74,243 ballots stems from a discrepancy the auditors noted when comparing two specific election files: the EV32 (ballots sent) and the EV33 (ballots received). Maricopa County election officials have strongly objected to the characterization of these as “phantom votes.” According to the county’s technical rebuttal, the discrepancy was caused by the auditors comparing files generated at different points in time. Because the list of eligible early voters changes daily—as voters move or request ballots in person—comparing a “sent” list from one date against a “received” list from a later date naturally results in data mismatches.
County officials clarified that every mail-in ballot counted was verified with a signature and tied to a qualified elector. Following the release of the audit, Maricopa County provided a line-by-line refutation of the claims, stating that the auditors’ methodology was flawed and that the existence of the 74,000 ballots was a “data processing error” on the part of the review team, not evidence of fraud. Despite the persistence of the claim online, the official partisan review ultimately reaffirmed the accuracy of the 2020 election outcome in Arizona.
