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Trump actually lost Arizona's largest county by hundreds more votes, according to GOP 'audit'

Former US President Donald Trump speaks during the Rally To Protect Our Elections conference on July 24, 2021 in Phoenix, Arizona.
  • Trump lost the largest county in Arizona to Biden by an even wider margin, according to a GOP review.

  • Insider obtained a draft of the controversial GOP election "audit" of Maricopa County on Thursday night.

  • The review found 261 fewer votes for Trump and 99 additional votes for Biden.

  • See more stories on Insider's business page.

Former President Donald Trump lost the largest county in Arizona to President Joe Biden by an even wider margin than the original 2020 vote count found, according to draft versions of the controversial and partisan Republican election "audit."

The GOP review, led by the cybersecurity company Cyber Ninjas and directed by the GOP-controlled state senate, found 261 fewer votes for Trump and 99 additional votes for Biden.

Maricopa County, the largest county in Arizona, announced on Thursday night that the election review, which it consistently denounced for its flaws and lack of transparency, had found the state was not "stolen" from Trump, as the former president and many of his supporters have baselessly alleged.

"The #azaudit draft report from Cyber Ninjas confirms the county's canvass of the 2020 General Election was accurate and the candidates certified as the winners did, in fact, win," the official county Twitter account wrote.

The draft reports found there were "no substantial differences" between the County's vote count and the Cyber Ninjas' count.

Arizona's election autopsy was funded by right-wing groups and donors, but widely criticized by the state's Republican leaders, including Maricopa County officials, who said the draft reports were "littered with errors and faulty conclusions."

Trump and his allies have hyped the report's findings for months, claiming the outcome would expose enough voter fraud to overturn the state's election results and embolden partisan audits in other states.

"Everybody will be watching Arizona tomorrow to see what the highly respected auditors and Arizona State Senate found out regarding the so-called Election!" Trump said in a statement on Thursday night, even after Maricopa County announced the audit's outcome.

Read the original article on Business Insider