The Arizona Republic

The recount could stretch beyond May 14, which is when it originally was estimated to conclude, Senate audit liaison Ken Bennett said Saturday.

- Taylor Seely

The Arizona Senate-ordered recount of nearly 2.1 million Maricopa County general election ballots could stretch beyond May 14, which is when it originally was estimated to conclude.

Senate liaison and former Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett said Saturday there was “no deadline” for the audit and that the recount may need to be paused May 14 when Veterans Memorial Coliseum is reserved to host several Phoenix high schools’ graduation­s.

The audit, headquarte­red at the coliseum at the state fairground­s, would resume about a week later, Bennett said, adding that the Senate has talked with state fair officials and has permission to use the space “for as long as we need it” after the graduation­s.

The backpedali­ng comes just days after Bennett told reporters he was confident workers would wrap up by May 14, and despite plans to increase the number of ballot counters and shifts starting May 3.

Bennett could offer no estimate on the number of ballots recounted as of Saturday.

Hand counters reviewed ballots at about 20 tables on Saturday.

One of the tables of five people — one person placing each ballot on a turnstyle, three people counting and one person removing each ballot — counted about 50 ballots in 12 minutes.

The downtime before counting more ballots began was about 10-12 minutes. The next batch of about 50 ballots took about 16 minutes to get through.

So it took about 40 minutes for that particular table to get through 100 ballots.

Bennett said staffing from temp agencies should be in place to up that to 46 counting tables on May 3, which would more than double the number of counters from 60 to 138 per shift. Instead of two shifts per day, counters would fill three shifts, Bennett said.

Bennett declined to estimate how long it might take to complete the recount once they get to that staffing level. “We have as much time as we need to do it right,” he said.

The full audit includes a hand count of the presidenti­al race and U.S. Senate race on nearly 2.1 million ballots, an analysis of voter informatio­n and an audit of the county’s voting technology.

The Arizona Democratic Party and County Supervisor Steve Gallardo filed a lawsuit to stop the recount pushed by Republican senators, saying it violated election laws and lacked protection­s to secure the ballots as well as voter privacy.

While the audit continues, a Superior Court judge ordered the private contractor­s overseeing the audit for the Senate to disclose its policies and procedures.

Two observers from the state Secretary of State’s Office were on the floor watching the process on Saturday.

The Republican-controlled state Senate hired Cyber Ninjas, a Floridabas­ed technology company with no known experience in election audits, to oversee the county audit.

Cyber Ninjas CEO Doug Logan, who has a history of posting unsubstant­iated claims of election fraud online, initially said he expected the hand count to take 16 days and to provide a full report in 60 days.

Nonpartisa­n election auditing experts had told The Arizona Republic the timeframe and price tag were unrealisti­c.

Harri Hursti, a data security expert, hacker and the founding partner of Nordic Innovation Labs, said state election audits he was involved with in California and Ohio had narrower scopes, cost $2 million each and took about three months.

Regarding the Arizona Senate’s audit, Hursti said, “You can’t provide a quality, thorough study with those working hours and that cost.”

The Senate is paying Cyber Ninjas $150,000 in taxpayer money, although unknown donors also are putting money toward the audit.

Logan has said the audit would cost more than $150,000, but he has refused to answer how much more or who would fund it.

A new private organizati­on recently sprouted up seeking $2.8 million to pay for the process. FundTheAud­it.com says it already has raised $1 million but does not list the donors.

Christina Bobb, former Trump administra­tion official and current broadcaste­r for the far-right One America News Network, and former Donald Trump attorney Sidney Powell have solicited donations from their followers.

Republic reporters Jen Fifield, Andrew Oxford and Maria Polletta contribute­d to this report.

Reach reporter Taylor Seely at tsee ly@arizonarep­ublic.com or 480-4766116. Follow her on Twitter @taylorsee ly95 or Instagram @taylor.azc.

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