Trump backers paid nearly all the $6 million cost of Ariz. ballot review

A widely shared Instagram post wrongly claims that taxpayers paid for a review of ballots from the 2020 presidential election in Arizona’s largest county.

The review was sought by Donald Trump and his supporters and ordered by Republicans in the state Senate. The final report issued Sept. 24 confirmed that Trump lost to Joe Biden in Maricopa County, actually by a larger margin than the county’s official canvass counted.

"This sham recount cost the tax payers $6 million," the post stated. "That's right, WE paid our own hard earned dollars for Trump to have his bull---- recount, which proved he actually lost by more votes than we even originally thought."

The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

While the Republicans have referred to the review as an "audit," election experts say that it did not follow typical post-election auditing procedures and lacked credibility.

The review found that Biden had 45,469 more votes than Trump in Maricopa, roughly in line with the official results certified in November 2020. According to the report issued by Cyber Ninjas, the firm hired to conduct the review, Biden’s margin of victory was 360 votes larger than the county’s official canvass showed.

The margin helped Biden beat Trump in Arizona by about 10,500 votes, the first time a Democratic presidential nominee had won there since 1996.

News stories have been clear that Trump supporters by and large picked up the tab.

Groups tied to the "stop the steal" movement and other efforts to cast doubt on the 2020 results raised nearly all of the $6 million to fund the inquiry, Reuters reported.

The Arizona Mirror reported on the five pro-Trump nonprofits that raised the nearly $5.7 million.

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stated on November 3, 2020 in a Facebook post

Voters in Maricopa County, Ariz., were forced to vote using Sharpie pens that aren’t read by voting machines.

Arizona’s Senate agreed to spend $150,000 on the review, plus security and facility costs, which "pales in comparison to the nearly $5.7 million contributed as of late July by Trump allies," the Associated Press reported. 

However, Maricopa County decided to spend nearly $3 million for new vote-counting machines, saying the old machines were compromised in the review because they were in the control of firms not accredited to handle election equipment, AP reported.

An Instagram post said Arizona’s ballot review cost taxpayers $6 million.

Trump supporters, not taxpayers, paid the bulk of the nearly $6 million it cost to review ballots in Maricopa County. 

Taxpayers contributed $150,000 toward the review, plus $3 million for new vote-counting machines to replace machines that the county decided had been compromised during the review.

We rate the post Mostly False.