After winning court-ordered access to state ballots and voting machines last month, the Republican-controlled Arizona Senate has announced that it is ordering a hand recount of more than 2 million ballots cast in Maricopa County.
The effort will require substantial manpower and resources to complete.
“We’ve had to do recounts in the past, on just doing it, running them through the machines. It is a nightmare, we’re talking about over 2 million ballots,” former recorder of Maricopa County, Helen Purcell, said. “How that’s going to be accomplished and what period of time, I have no idea.”
Arizona Republicans have said that they hope a hand audit of the results will restore citizens’ confidence in the integrity of the election process.