Election observers and voting rights advocates have said the process lacks independent oversight and could be used to further baseless claims about the 2020 election.
Black and blue ink are the only colors the Maricopa County election machines can read.
That s why it mattered when a reporter from The Arizona Republic questioned why counters for the hand recount of the county s 2020 general election were equipped with blue pens: Blue ink can alter a ballot, causing it to be discarded, or confusing the voter s intent.
Based partly on that, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Christopher Coury ordered a temporary halt to the audit, which started Friday morning at Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum.
The ink issue is an important part of election integrity.
Here are the roles the different colors play, according to elections officials:
Updated
Apr 23, 2021 05:37 pm
PHOENIX (AP) An Arizona judge cited deep concerns about ballot secrecy on Friday during an audit of the 2020 election results from the state’s most populous county, but the process will move forward after Democrats decided not to put up a $1 million bond to fund any increase in costs from the delay.
That price tag was too steep, Democrats said, letting the audit continue in Maricopa County home to Arizona’s largest city, Phoenix while leaving in place the judge’s orders that the Arizona Senate and its auditors follow state law on ballot secrecy and voter privacy as they do a hand recount of 2.1 million ballots.
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Just like that the ballot audit in Maricopa County, Arizona, is back on.
The pause granted by a judge today in response to a democrat lawsuit was contingent upon the democrats putting up a $1 million bond to cover the expenses incurred from the pause. The democrats refused to put up the bond, so the audit will continue back on schedule.
ARIZONA – A brief weekend pause in the Arizona Senate’s election audit that a judge ordered on Friday won’t happen because the Arizona Democratic Party declined to put up a $1 million bond that the judge requested to cover any expenses that the Senate wrongfully incurs due to the halt.