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Elections workers process ballots using a ballot counting machine at the Maricopa County Counting and Election Center on November 10, 2022.
Republicans in the State Capitol have many ideas that could dramatically change the Arizona election. From banning all unmonitored ballot drop boxes to banning mail-in ballots altogether.
Most of these ideas, even if adopted by a Republican-dominated Congress, won’t make it through Arizona’s new Democratic Governor, Katie Hobbs.
SB1471 It’s not a change in the electoral process, it’s a test of sorts: man vs. machine.
Maricopa County alone must select four precincts, select 100 votes from each of those precincts, and recount all races on each ballot by hand and machine. The bill would then require counties to compare the differences in counts and see which was more accurate.
But why Maricopa County only? Thanks to the so-called audit of the 2020 elections that took place, it was at the center of conspiracy theories.
Many losing candidates, like gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, have set their sights on Maricopa County as a non-existent source of election fraud.
It is also the largest county in all of Arizona and therefore the most important county for candidates statewide.
Maricopa County reporter Stephen Richer supports the bill A long list of election changes he proposedRicher sees this as a put up or shut up moment for those who doubt the accuracy and reliability of the vote tallying machine, sometimes called a tallying machine.
Richer thinks the “man vs. machine” contest proves a few things. The ballot counter is highly accurate, unbiased, and fast. Not only is the bill a test of accuracy, but it is also written to measure how long it takes to count votes.
The plan is to time how long it takes to manually count 400 votes and then calculate how long it will take to count all the votes cast in the November 2022 election. As a result, perhaps in weeks, not days, the stupidity of those demanding ballot counting will be revealed. Many of those same people are also demanding results on election night.
The bill may not be enough to silence those who oppose the election, but it gives people like Richer something concrete to point out in the never-ending debate over voting facilities. right.
