The aging Veterans Memorial Coliseum in Phoenix once played host to NBA games, roller derby and wrestling matches. Now the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election is being tested there.
But the effort and questions about it have alarmed election administrators and the U.S. Department of Justice.
Ken Bennett, Senate Liaison for the recount of Maricopa County ballots and former Arizona Secretary of State, spoke to reporters about the ongoing election audit's progress:
— Ken Bennett
Question 1:
So where are we at today?
Ken Bennett:
The audit continues. And no change, we keep moving forward. Accuracy is the best way to accomplish speed. So we're focusing on on that. Obviously, at the end of the week, Phoenix Union High School District takes over the facility on Saturday to get ready for some graduations next Monday through Thursday. So we'll stand aside and secure all the ballots and equipment here on the property and be ready to go when they're finished. I haven't heard any numbers. I was home in Prescott for Mother's Day, so I haven't checked with that. But we're still we're..
Yeah, 15,000. Or maybe it was, I think we're more than that, probably two and a quarter, maybe 250 or something. I see the number of boxes going down in the to be counted corrals, and we're a little slower in the paper evaluation process than the counting. But as far as counted ballots, I think we're approaching quarter of a million.
Question 3:
I know you guys increase the amount of tables on the floor, it looks like about half of the tables are empty this morning. What does it look like with personnel staffing? Are these volunteers? Are you hiring more people?
Bennett:
The subcontractors are hiring or receiving more volunteers. But everyone has to go through a background check. And so they're going through that process. And I think that's taken a little more time than maybe they are we had hoped, but they're being thorough on that. And I think when we're, you know, hopefully within a few days, or
when we come back, after the graduations will be fully stocked at the tables and ready to go.
Question 4:
How many people do you think that's going to be?
Bennett:
Well, when we had 20 tables, and there was five at a table, that's 100, if there's 46, now times five, and you're talking 230. So it's all it's more than a doubling of the number of people to process the ballots when you go from 20 to 46 tables.
Question 8:
But the deadlines for the contractor has to report to the Senate. I think there was something in
the initial scope of work about a report and 60 days or something. How does this change that?
Bennett:
If there have been delays, then I'm sure the Senate will accept a later report. There's no use given a report until you've done all the work. So once all the work is done, and they have a reasonable time to put the report together, then it'll be given to the Senate as soon as I can.
Question 14:
To what extent has that information on to what extent is?
Bennett:
Well, one of the items subpoena that has not been provided are the passwords to get into all aspects of the election management system and the end the machines. The subcontractor doing the machine evaluation, was able to get into the machines with a primary password but ran into a secondary password.
Maricopa County now says that they don't have any more passwords. So those passwords must be held by their their contractor, Dominion. And so the Senate will have to decide whether they either subpoena those through Maricopa County to get them from their vendor Dominion, or whether they subpoena those directly from Dominion. The other thing, the other thing that hasn't been provided, or, among other things that haven't been provided is access to the routers, and the hubs and the internet connectivity. That was at the Mactac facility during the election. I think the subpoena said they were looking for information 90 days prior to and 30 days after the election, as to the routers and logs and things like that, to confirm that there was no nothing connected to the internet.
Question 15:
What is the work that happened? I'm sure you've heard that a million times.
Bennett:
Well, the the the capture of all the data from the machines, Kurd here within the Coliseum. And then we returned the machines to Maricopa county that we had been able to get into fully. The 385 ICPs are called that we ran into this. Our subcontractor ran into the secondary password issue. Those are still being stored here.
The subcontractor that captured all the forensic data off of the machines, that that they could have now returned to their secure lab, where they're evaluating the information that they were able to capture.