Observers of Arizona's Republican-led recount have found security gates left open, confidential manuals left unattended and quality-control measures disregarded, according to the Arizona secretary of state's office.
In one instance, a software update caused so many errors that the company handling the recount abandoned the update and went back to the old software. In other instances, prohibited items including cellphones and pens with black or blue ink were allowed onto the counting floor.
And in an incident last week, audit spokesman and former state Republican Party chairman Randy Pullen told an observer that the pink T-shirt he was required to wear while watching the proceedings made him "look like a transgender."
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, and election security experts have long criticized the audit as error-riddled. Now, Hobbs' office is documenting the alleged infractions online.
"The effort to hand-count the 2.1 million ballots cast in Maricopa County during the 2020 Presidential Election resumed on May 24, after a week-long pause," Hobbs' office said in a statement posted on the webpage, which was launched Tuesday. "Observers on behalf of the Arizona Secretary of State's Office continued to note problematic practices, changing policies, and security threats that have plagued this exercise from the start."
The alleged infractions -- all of which took place within the past week and a half -- are only the latest debacle in the partisan audit, which was ordered by the GOP-led state Senate despite the fact that county officials, as well as state and federal judges, found no merit in claims that the vote was tainted by fraud or other problems.
President Joe Biden narrowly won in Arizona, the first time a Democrat captured the traditionally GOP state since Bill Clinton in 1996.
Former Republican Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, who is also acting as a spokesman for the audit, said he was not immediately able to comment.
Pullen told The Washington Post in a text message that the allegation about his remarks on the observer's T-shirt was "not true." He did not specify whether he was referring to his reported comments or the color of the observer's shirt.
"It's interesting that he would say that," Pullen said, referring to the unnamed observer. "Volunteers have red shirts, yellow shirts, green shirts, blue shirts, orange shirts, and white shirts on the floor to identify their job. Every color has a nuisance associated with it. Our 300+ volunteers make jokes about the colors of their shirts every day."
The audit's Twitter account, ArizonaAudit, tweeted last month that Hobbs' previous allegations, made in a six-page letter, were "baseless claimes [sic]."
Republicans hired a Florida-based private contractor called Cyber Ninjas, whose chief executive has echoed former President Donald Trump's allegations of fraud, to handle the recount.
The company has been criticized for running an opaque process and failing to follow state rules for elections and recounts. Its audit has been embraced by Trump and his allies as the key to overturning his election loss, and has spawned a wave of theories about how the Maricopa County vote could have been rigged.
Hobbs announced Wednesday that she is running for governor, releasing a campaign video that in part highlights her work overseeing the state's elections.
"We had a job to do, and that job was simple: Count every vote," Hobbs says in the video. "When you're under attack, some would have you believe you have two choices: to fight or give in. But there's a third option: Get the job done."