Officials say half of ballots counted in audit of Maricopa County election
Jun 1, 2021, 1:32 PM | Updated: 2:23 pm
(Photo by Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images)
(Photo by Courtney Pedroza/Getty Images)
PHOENIX — More than half of the 2.1 million ballots have been tallied in the Arizona Senate’s audit of results of the 2020 Maricopa County election as a third daily shift of counting is set to be added, officials said Tuesday.
The mark was passed Saturday, Senate liaisons Ken Bennett and Randy Pullen told a pool reporter.
“I think we’re well over halfway,” Bennett said.
The hand recount of the ballots began April 23 at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum and was paused May 14 because of graduation ceremonies previously booked at the venue.
At the time of the break, about 680,000 ballots had been counted, according to Pullen.
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The audit resumed May 24 and the Coliseum is available to the auditors through the end of June.
Memorial Day was the highest daily total of ballots counted since the audit started, the liaisons said. The total ballots counted Monday wasn’t provided.
That comes as the audit adds a third shift of counting for the first time Tuesday night. The shift will run from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m. and have fewer volunteers than other shifts.
“It will be very limited,” Bennett said.
Senate President Karen Fann hired Florida-based Cyber Ninjas to oversee three other contractors on the audit.
Fann, a Republican, has said the aim of the audit is to restore faith in the election system, not to reverse the result of the Arizona election.
