A bill introduced in the Arizona state Senate would pit man against machine, at least when it comes to counting ballots. The legislation proposes a recount of a portion of votes cast in the November 2022 general election.
Hundreds of ballots would be recounted exclusively in Maricopa County, which has long been criticized by election deniers and conspiracy theorists who claim votes in 2020 and 2022 were rigged.
Senate Bill 1471 would require bipartisan volunteers to hand-count a select “test deck” of 2022 ballots.
Those same ballots would also be counted by machine.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer, who’s fiercely defended the county’s elections, supports the bill. Richer, who’s a Republican, said in a statement the test will prove that machine tabulation is highly accurate, free of bias and fast.
