凤凰城——在退伍军人纪念体育馆的地板上，曾经有查尔斯·巴克利和迈克尔·乔丹这样的NBA球星在这里扣篮篮球s和胡克·霍根与金刚邦迪扭打在一起，46张桌子排成整齐的一排，中间各有一个懒人苏珊。
坐在桌子旁边的是几十个人，大多数是共和党人，他们花了几个小时看着选票旋转、拍照或仔细检查。他们正在清点人数，并检查是否有迹象表明他们是从韩国偷偷飞来的。几周前，他们把它们放在紫外线灯下，寻找谣传是欺诈迹象的水印。
这是亚利桑那州对该州人口最多的县2020年选举结果的非同寻常的党派审计——前总统唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)和他的一大批支持者都拒绝接受他在亚利桑那州或其他战场州的损失。这些选票之前已经计算过，并得到了共和党州长的认证。这个国家的大部分地区已经向前迈进了。
然而，在这个老龄化的舞台上，共和党人正在寻找证据来支持他们已经相信的说法。
这一努力引起了美国司法部投票权倡导者、选举管理人员和民权律师的警觉，他们在过去一周要求确认联邦安全和反恐吓法律得到了遵守。参议院议长、共和党人卡伦·范恩(Karen Fann)周五回应称，该部门没有什么可担心的。
“他们输了，他们无法克服，”格兰特·伍兹说，他是亚利桑那州前共和党司法部长，在特朗普担任总统期间成为民主党人。“他们不想忘记这件事，因为他们想继续散布对选举的怀疑。”
马里科帕县选举官员已经在11月清点了210万张选票，并通过了部分人工重新计票，得到了州长道格·杜西的认证。两次额外审计确认没有问题。没有发现足以使乔·拜登在亚利桑那州和马里科帕县险胜的欺诈证据。
尽管如此，柜台人员每小时支付15美元来仔细检查每张选票，检查折痕，并拍摄特写照片，寻找机器标记的选票和纸张中的竹纤维。原因似乎是为了测试一种阴谋论，即选举后不久，一架韩国飞机向凤凰机场运送了伪造的选票。
当重新计票开始时，选票在紫外线下被观察以检查水印。QAnon追随者流行的一种理论是，特朗普秘密给邮件选票添加水印，以捕捉作弊行为。
马里科帕县的选票上没有水印。这一努力后来被放弃了。
尽管他们有明显的党派偏见，但审计人员坚持认为他们可以被信任，因为他们正在运行一个独立和透明的操作。然而，他们从右翼团体中招募人员。他们试图阻止媒体进入。他们在法庭上争取不披露他们用来计票和保证选票安全的书面程序。他们输了。
完全不清楚是谁在为此买单，花费多少。纳税人通过参议院的运营预算投入了15万美元，但领导审计的这家小公司的首席执行官承认，这不足以支付成本。
筹款人，一个来自保守的“一个美国”新闻网，另一个与促进选举阴谋的前首席执行官帕特里克·伯恩有关，正在筹集数十万英镑。
批评者称未披露的私人资金是一个巨大的危险信号——审计可能由外国政府或与结果有利害关系的人资助，如特朗普的热情支持者。
前共和党国务卿肯·班尼特(Ken Bennett)是参议院审计委员会的联络员，他驳斥了越来越多的批评。
班尼特说:“我认为共和党人可以像民主党人、自由主义者或无党派人士一样计算选票。”。
审计有自己的推特账户，并采取了通快的方式，对民主党人和记者进行夸张和尖锐的攻击。
“银河中最伟大的审计仍在继续!!"该账户于5月4日在推特上发布。
所有这一切都是由共和党控制的州参议院实现的，参议院发出了前所未有的传票，要求访问所有选票和在马里科帕县清点选票的机器，马里科帕县是凤凰城地区和60%亚利桑那州选民的家园。
在与共和党控制的县监事会(该委员会坚称选举运行良好)进行了数月的法庭斗争后，参议院获得了选票。尽管经过反复审核和手算选票样本，显示结果是准确的，但还是出现了这种情况。
共和党参议院主席范恩(Fann)周六再次坚称，审计与特朗普无关，而是与大部分共和党选民有关，尽管缺乏证据，但他相信他们确实赢了。
“每个人都在说，哦，没有证据，就像，是的，好吧，让我们做审计，如果那里什么都没有，那么我们说，看，那里什么都没有，”范说。“如果我们发现了什么，这是一个很大的假设，但如果我们发现了什么，那么我们可以说，好吧，我们确实有证据，现在我们如何解决这个问题?”
选票被交给了网络忍者，一家小型网络安全公司，其总裁道格·洛根是特朗普的支持者，他分享了关于选举的古怪阴谋论。
这种担忧持续到柜台本身。前共和党州议员安东尼·克恩(Anthony Kern)在1月6日的叛乱中被拍到在美国国会大厦外的禁区内，他几次被发现清点选票。
参议院共和党人威胁说，最快将于周一发出另一张传票，要求提供投票机和互联网路由器的密码。县官员犹豫不决，称他们已经交出了所有密码，放弃路由器将危及各种敏感数据，从健康记录到郡长办公室的机密信息。
民主党治安官保罗·彭佐称这一要求为“令人麻木的鲁莽和不负责任”
审计只记录了民主党赢得的总统竞选和美国参议院竞选。共和党人表现更好的无记名投票选举没有被审查。
由于错误和操作问题，操作速度变慢了。第一天，一名记者注意到柜台使用蓝色钢笔，这在计票室是禁止的，因为它们可以被机器读取。这促使法院发布命令，只要求红笔或绿笔。
人员配备也是一个问题。尽管承诺即将出现一大批计数器，但46个计数表中只有大约三分之一在使用。
周四下午，只有16张计数桌和12张摄影桌在使用，分成红、蓝、绿、黄颜色编码的小组。
最快的牌桌每次投票大约需要6秒钟。一张特别慢的绿色桌子每张花了20秒或更多。在每批选票之间经过了如此多的时间，以至于在任何给定的时间，一半或更多的计数器都没有做任何事情。
作为审计的一部分，参议院租用了体育馆四周，审计预计需要“大约60天”。但是离审计员必须离开竞技场参加一系列高中毕业典礼还有一周时间，只有大约10%的选票被计算在内。
班尼特说，计数可能会持续到7月。
一位共和党参议员最初对这份评估很满意，但对选择一位有“先入为主的想法”并专注于追求阴谋论的审计员感到失望。
“甚至没有独立的感觉，”凤凰城郊区格伦代尔的参议员保罗·博耶说。
Inside Arizona's election audit, GOP fraud fantasies live on
PHOENIX -- On the floor of Veterans Memorial Coliseum, where NBA stars like Charles Barkley and Michael Jordan once dunkedbasketballs and Hulk Hogan wrestled King Kong Bundy, 46 tables are arrayed in neat rows, each with a Lazy Susan in the middle.
Seated at the tables are several dozen people, mostly Republicans, who spend hours watching ballots spin by, photographing them or inspecting them closely. They are counting them and checking to see if there is any sign they were flown in surreptitiously from South Korea. A few weeks ago they were holding them up to ultraviolet lights, looking for a watermark rumored to be a sign of fraud.
This is Arizona’s extraordinary, partisan audit of the 2020 election results in the state's most populous county — ground zero for former President Donald Trump and a legion of his supporters who have refused to accept his loss in Arizona or in other battleground states. These ballots have been counted before and certified by the Republican governor. Much of the country has moved on.
And yet, in this aging arena, Republicans are searching for evidence to support claims they already believe.
The effort has alarmed voting rights advocates, election administrators and civil rights lawyers at the U.S. Department of Justice, who this past week demanded confirmation that federal security and anti-intimidation laws are being followed. Senate President Karen Fann, a Republican, responded Friday by telling the department it had nothing to worry about.
“They lost, and they can’t get over it," said Grant Woods, a former Republican Arizona attorney general who became a Democrat during Trump’s presidency. “And they don’t want to get over it because they want to continue to sow doubt about the election.”
The 2.1 million ballots were already counted by Maricopa County election officials in November, validated in a partial hand recount and certified by Gov. Doug Ducey. Two extra audits confirmed no issues. No evidence of fraud sufficient to invalidate Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Arizona and Maricopa County has been found.
Still, counters are being paid $15 an hour to scrutinize each ballot, examining folds and taking close-up photos looking for machine-marked ballots and bamboo fibers in the paper. The reason appears to be to test a conspiracy theory that a plane from South Korea delivered counterfeit ballots to the Phoenix airport shortly after the election.
When the recount started, the ballots were viewed under ultraviolet light to check for watermarks. A theory popular with QAnon followers is that Trump secretly watermarked mail ballots to catch cheating.
There are no watermarks on ballots in Maricopa County. The effort has since been abandoned.
Despite their obvious partisan biases, the auditors insist they can be trusted because they’re running an independent and transparent operation. Yet they’re recruiting from right-wing groups. They tried to block media access. They fought in court to not disclose written procedures they’re using to count votes and keep ballots secure. They lost.
And it’s entirely unclear who is paying for it and how much it’s costing. Taxpayers, through the Senate’s operating budget, chipped in $150,000, but the CEO of the small company leading the audit has acknowledged that won’t cover costs.
Fundraisers, one from the conservative One America News Network and another tied to Patrick Byrne, a former CEO who promoted election conspiracies, are raising hundreds of thousands more.
Critics call the undisclosed private funding a huge red flag — the audit could be funded by foreign governments or people with a stake in the outcome like ardent Trump supporters.
Ken Bennett, a former Republican secretary of state who is serving as the Senate's liaison to the auditors, dismissed mounting criticism.
“I think Republicans can count votes on ballots as well as Democrats or Libertarians or independents,” Bennett said.
The audit has its own Twitter account, and it has taken on a Trumpian air, deploying hyperbole and sharp attacks on Democrats and journalists.
“THE GREATEST AUDIT IN THE GALAXY CONTINUES!!” the account tweeted on May 4.
All of it is made possible by the GOP-controlled state Senate, which issued an unprecedented subpoena demanding access to all ballots and the machines that counted them in Maricopa County, home to the Phoenix area and 60% of Arizona voters.
After months of court battles with the GOP-controlled county Board of Supervisors, which maintains the election was well run, the Senate got hold of the ballots. That came despite repeated audits and a hand count of a sample of ballots that showed the results were accurate.
Fann, the Republican Senate president, insisted again Saturday that the audit has nothing to do with Trump and everything to do with the large segment of GOP voters who he convinced that he actually won, despite the lack of evidence.
“Everybody keeps saying, oh, there’s no evidence, and it’s like, yeah, well, let’s do the audit, and if there’s nothing there, then we say, look, there was nothing there,” Fann said. “If we find something, and it’s a big if, but if we find something, then we can say, OK, we do have evidence, and now how do we fix this?”
The ballots were handed over to Cyber Ninjas, a tiny cybersecurity firm whose president, Doug Logan, is a Trump supporter who has shared outlandish conspiracy theories about the election.
That concern continues to the counters themselves. Anthony Kern, a former Republican state lawmaker who was photographed in restricted areas outside the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 insurrection, has been spotted several times tallying the votes.
Senate Republicans are threatening to issue another subpoena as soon as Monday demanding passwords for voting machines and internet routers. County officials are balking, saying that they've turned over all passwords they have and that giving up routers would jeopardize a wide variety of sensitive data, from health records to confidential and classified information at the sheriff's office.
Sheriff Paul Penzone, a Democrat, called the demand “mind-numbingly reckless and irresponsible.”
The audit is recounting only the presidential race and the U.S. Senate contest, two contests won by Democrats. Down-ballot races, where Republicans fared better, are not being reviewed.
The operation has been slowed by mistakes and operational problems. On the first day, a reporter noticed counters using blue pens, which are banned in ballot counting rooms because they can be read by machines. That prompted a court order requiring only red or green pens.
Staffing has been an issue as well. Despite promises that an army of counters is imminent, only about a third of the 46 counting tables are being used.
On Thursday afternoon, just 16 counting tables and 12 photography tables were in use, split into red, blue, green and yellow color-coded teams.
The fastest tables spent about 6 seconds per ballot. One particularly slow green table spent 20 seconds or more on each one. So much time passes between batches of ballots that, at any given time, half or more of the counters were not doing anything.
The Senate leased the Coliseum for four weeks as part of an audit that was supposed to take “about 60 days.” But with one week left before the auditors have to vacate the arena for a series of high school graduations, only about 10% of the ballots have been counted.
Bennett said the count may continue into July.
One Republican senator, who initially was fine with the review, has grown disillusioned with the choice of an auditor with “preconceived notions" and a focus on pursuing conspiracy theories.
“There's not even a perception of independence,” said Sen. Paul Boyer of Glendale, a Phoenix suburb.
