Congress Investigating Conspiracy-Prone ‘Audit’ Tech Company
A tech company behind multiple election “audits” is facing a congressional investigation over concerns that its latest audit “illegally interferes with Americans’ right to vote by spreading disinformation about elections and intimidating voters.”
A letter from the House Oversight Committee to EchoMail highlights concerns about the tech company’s involvement in Otero County, New Mexico’s “audit” of the 2020 presidential election. EchoMail recently participated in a similar, discredited audit of Maricopa County, Arizona’s 2020 election. The House letter notes potential issues with the ongoing audit—including allegations that EchoMail is spreading election misinformation and contracting “a conspiracist group” to knock on Otero County residents’ doors. The committee has requested EchoMail turn over an array of audit-related documents by the end of the month.
“Protecting the right to vote and the sanctity of our elections is a key priority for me as Chairwoman of the Committee on Oversight and Reform,” Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), chairwoman of the Oversight Committee told The Daily Beast in a statement. “The reports coming out of New Mexico of EchoMail’s canvassers harassing and intimidating people on their own property in the name of a sham ‘audit’ are truly disturbing. I urge the Department of Justice to review potential ongoing civil rights violations arising from this so-called audit, and I look forward to uncovering the full scope of EchoMail’s actions.”
Neither EchoMail nor its CEO Shiva Ayyadurai returned The Daily Beast’s requests for comment.
Ayyadurai is a vocal proponent of election fraud conspiracy theories, the committee’s letter notes. Ayyadurai first made those claims about his own loss in Massachusetts’ 2020 Republican Senate primary, when he falsely claimed that the state had “destroy[ed] Over 1 MILLION Ballots.” Ayyadurai made similar allegations about Trump’s 2020 defeat and spoke at multiple election conspiracy events.
Despite those comments, multiple Republican-led governmental bodies have contracted Ayyudarai and EchoMail to conduct “audits” of their elections. Last year, EchoMail received two $50,000 contracts from the Arizona Senate to conduct work on its audit, which was being overseen by Cyber Ninjas, a now-defunct company whose founder has also promoted election fraud conspiracy theories. EchoMail claimed to have uncovered election malfeasance, but Arizona elections officials were quick to note that those claims were based on a misunderstanding of the state’s voting process.
Nevertheless, EchoMail and Ayyadurai were considered for other Republican-led districts’ audit efforts. In January, New Mexico’s Otero County awarded EchoMail a $49,750 contract to perform an election audit. Part of that deal included a subcontract with the group “New Mexico Audit Force (NMAF),” which was hired to “canvas” voters, a process that consists of knocking on residents’ doors and asking them questions about their votes.
The contract—and NMAF’s involvement in particular—prompted pushback from New Mexico officials, including the state’s secretary of state and auditor, who voiced concerns about the EchoMail audit this month. In its own letter this week, the New Mexico State Auditor’s office accused the audit of being “purely political grandstanding” and alleged that NMAF canvassers had misrepresented themselves as Otero County employees while knocking on doors. (The group had previously pledged not to mention the county during those visits.)
Additionally, as The Daily Beast previously reported, NMAF leader David Clements has repeatedly called for the deaths of people he believes were involved in election fraud. During a recent speech at a church where he discussed the Otero County audit, Clements stated that “the difference between me and the data nerds is I want arrests, I want prosecutions, I want firing squads.”
The Oversight Committee letter to Ayyaduari and EchoMail cites those comments, as well as Ayyadurai’s election conspiracy theories.
“We are deeply concerned about your company’s role in this effort, given your participation in the discredited ‘audit’ in Maricopa County, Arizona, and your personal embrace of election conspiracy theories,” the letter reads.
“The Committee is also alarmed by your company’s involvement in a door-to-door canvass of Otero County voters, which is apparently being conducted by volunteers from a conspiracist group whose leaders aim to ‘pinpoint’ a ‘list of suspects’ for ‘criminal prosecution,’ and called for ‘arrests,’ ‘prosecutions,’ and ‘firing squads.’ This potentially illegal canvass is already under way, and more than sixty Otero County residents have contacted state and local officials expressing concerns about interactions with the canvassers.”
The Committee letter requests “all internal and external communications regarding the Otero County ‘audit’ or canvass.” That includes all of Ayyadurai’s or EchoMail’s communications with Erin Clements, David Clements, “any individual associated with the New Mexico Audit Force,” Lin Wood, Doug Logan, Philip Waldron, or any of Otero County’s three commissioners. (Wood, Logan, and Waldron have been involved in previous “Stop The Steal” efforts. Logan’s now-defunct company Cyber Ninjas ran the Maricopa County audit with assistance from EchoMail.)
The Oversight Committee letter also requests documents related to the Otero County audit, including training materials and information on fundraisers related to the audit. Although Otero County is paying EchoMail nearly $50,000 for the audit, New Mexico Audit Force leader David Clements has previously stated that his group is trying to raise $100,000 in outside funding. In February, he claimed the group had already raised $20,000 via a fundraiser on Lin Wood’s website.
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