Arizona audit: Recount of Maricopa County election restarts at coliseum Staff Reports
Ballot counting has resumed at Veterans Memorial Coliseum after a week-plus-long hiatus due to high school graduation ceremonies.
Before they paused, the effort had made it through about 500,000 of the 2.1 million ballots cast by Maricopa County voters. The counters now have about six weeks to finish the rest before their lease expires at the end of June.
The floor of the coliseum now has 44 tables set up for counting and 32 for ballot inspection, though just half of those were in use Monday morning. The effort will have to pick up considerable steam to complete the work over the next month.
Arizona audit: Recount of Maricopa County election packs up shop for now Staff Reports
The floor of Veterans Memorial Coliseum was largely empty Friday after three weeks of people recounting Maricopa County s general election ballots.
They made it through just less than a quarter of the 2.1 million ballots in that time, despite originally planning to wrap up the Arizona Senate-ordered audit today.
Instead, the ballots and equipment are being hauled to the Wesley Bolin Building on the south end of the state fairgrounds, west of the cattle barns. After a week of high school graduations at the coliseum, the recount is expected to pick back up there on May 24 and run through June.
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The Arizona Senate-ordered audit of Maricopa County s general election will take a one-week hiatus at the end of the week to make way for high school graduations at Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix.
The plan is to move the ballots and equipment to another area of the Arizona State Fairgrounds on Friday and move back in May 23 to pick back up on May 24.
“We’ll stand aside and secure all the ballots and equipment here on the property and be ready to go when they’re finished,” said the state Senate s audit liaison Ken Bennett.
Jen Yee, assistant executive director at the Arizona State Fair and Exposition, confirmed the plan, but said nothing had been signed as of Monday.
As Maricopa County and the Arizona Senate battle over who should audit the 2020 election results, The Arizona Republic looked into the companies that actually would do the work.
It matters, election consultants say, since these companies will be trusted with material that s typically kept private to keep elections secure.
The county Board of Supervisors hired two firms to conduct its audit, saying they are the only firms that should be trusted because they are the only two accredited by the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to certify voting machines for use in elections in Arizona and across the country.
Yet, this connection alone that the companies who certified the county s machines are now the ones auditing them has some questioning whether there is a conflict.
A closer look at the companies auditing Maricopa County s election statesman.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from statesman.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.