The Arizona Senate’s hand recount of 2.1 million ballots cast in the Maricopa County election in 2020 will likely conclude by the end of this week. However, auditors still have several other tasks to complete before they are finished.
The contractors have the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix until June 30.
“The counting will be done by the end of this week, and then the resources will shift to the paper evaluation,” Senate audit liaison Ken Bennett told reporters at the venue on Tuesday. “That may still take most of the rest of this month.”
Bennett described the “paper evaluation,” as a process of reviewing ballot paper for irregular folds.
A final report on the election audit is expected in late July or August, the report states.
“Audit Update: 80% of the ballots are now counted. Voter integrity is a priority in America and we are proud that Arizona is leading the way. The audit continues!” the Maricopa Arizona Audit group tweeted this week.
Pennsylvania is considering a similar audit and has observed the Maricopa audit. Nine more states will tour the audit on Friday.
In an interview on Wednesday, Bennett said, “There have been many boxes of unserialized duplicated ballots.” Some things made him “gasp” but, he said, they wouldn’t change the results of the election.
He did find things “that are very concerning.” But nothing will be released before the audit is completed.
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