What we know about Arizona Senate GOP's second recount of 2020 ballots – 12news.com KPNX

PHOENIX — It’s the recount after the recount.
Arizona Senate Republicans’ election review is expected to continue Tuesday with a recount of all 2.1 million paper ballots cast by Maricopa County voters in November 2020. 
This will be a machine-processed ballot count, not the eight-week-long hand recount of the votes cast for president and the U.S. Senate.
One more difference: The Senate GOP audit has moved from the spacious Veterans Memorial Coliseum on the State Fairgrounds to a much smaller, steamier building nearby that the fair doesn’t recommend for summer occupancy. 
Here’s what we know about the latest wrinkle in an election review that experts say defies accepted standards for an audit:
Audit coordinator Randy Pullen said the second recount was a sign that Senate Republicans were «being super careful.»
«We just wanted another way to come in and check the numbers,» Pullen told media pool reporter Kyung Lah of CNN on Monday.
«We know the county is going to be hostile. They’re going to say any numbers we have are wrong.»
The Maricopa County Board oversees county elections. The county Elections Department performed two independent audits that gave its equipment a clean bill of health.
Senate Republicans’ election review is led by and largely paid for by people who believe the presidential election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. 
Voice mails and text messages made public two weeks ago reveal that in the two months after the Nov. 3 vote, Trump, his lawyer Rudy Guiliani and Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward applied pressure on the Maricopa County Board to sway the election outcome. 
Pullen did make a concession about comparing this new recount to the county’s ballot total: «The numbers, in reality, are never going match. That’s just reality. That’s life.»
RELATED: Hobbs urges Arizona’s attorney general to investigate alleged election interference by Trump, allies
The taxpayer portion of the recount is climbing toward $200,000 and beyond.
Republican Senate President Karen Fann agreed to pay the leader of her audit team a flat $150,000.
The two new ballot-counting machines cost about $30,000, according to the manufacturer. 
There is no purchase contract on file with the state Senate, according to a Senate official.
An audit contractor paid for the machines, but Senate Republicans are expected to repay the contractor with taxpayer dollars. 
RELATED: Maricopa County will replace election equipment inspected by auditors
Pullen said the second recount should take 10 workdays once it starts. 
The Senate’s contract for the Wesley Bolin Building expires Wednesday.
A State Fair spokeswoman said a contract extension is pending. 
The Senate’s two-month lease of Veterans Memorial Coliseum for the hand recount and a projected four weeks in the Bolin building comes at no charge other than the cost of utilities.
That cost won’t be known until August, the Fair spokeswoman said.
RELATED: Poll: Majority of Americans want easier in-person early voting and a photo ID requirement
The target date for issuing a formal report to Senate Republicans on the review findings is sometime next month.
«Probably the first week of August,» Pullen said. «They’re working on it right now. They’re drafting it.»
Pullen said it would be up to Senate Republicans to decide when to publicly release the report.
Trump is scheduled to be the keynote speaker on July 24 in Phoenix at a daylong «Rally to Protect Our Elections.»  
Trump has taken an intense interest in the Senate Republicans’ recount.
The timing of the rally and the Republican audit team’s work raises the prospect of an early leak of the results.
RELATED: Donald Trump to return to Phoenix for ‘Rally to Protect Our Elections’
Keep track of the latest developments from the Maricopa County election audit on the 12 News YouTube channel.
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