The sun begins to set behind a voting sign at Gideon Missionary Baptist Church, 3085 S. Campbell Ave., in Tucson, Ariz. on Nov. 3, 2020.

 Rebecca Sasnett / Arizona Daily Star

PHOENIX – A hand count of ballots from random precincts sought by the Arizona Republican Party in hopes of finding more votes for President Trump just can’t be done, an attorney for Maricopa County told a judge Monday.

Deputy County Attorney Joseph La Rue pointed out that party attorney Jack Wilenchik is demanding there be a random hand-count audit of votes cast at 2% of the more than 700 precincts.

He told Maricopa County Superior Court Judge John Hannah that his county did not require voters to cast ballots in their own precincts.

β€œWe didn’t do it that way,” LaRue said.

President-elect Joe Biden has chosen longtime adviser and friend Ron Klain to serve as his White House Chief of Staff.

Instead, he explained, any registered voter could go to any of the approximately 175 vote centers.

β€œOur ballots are not separated by precincts,” La Rue said. β€œThey’re in bags, separated by vote centers.”

That hand count was finished a week ago, he said, based on 2% of the voting centers, something La Rue told Hannan is specifically authorized by the state’s official Election Procedures Manual.

What Wilenchik wants, he continued, is opening all of the bags and trying to figure out which ballots inside belong to which precincts. Even if the bags are opened, La Rue said, it may not be possible to isolate different precincts.

And even it it could be done β€” a point La Rue does not concede β€” there is no way all that can happen, including a new precinct-by-precinct hand count, ahead of the plans by the Board of Supervisors to certify the election results in a formal canvass by Thursday, or Friday at the latest.

La Rue told Hannah it makes no sense for him to order the kind of hand count the GOP wants if the results will come after the election tallies already are certified.

β€œThe purpose of the hand-count audit is to determine if the vote was accurate and, if it wasn’t, to take other remedial steps prior to the canvass,” he said. β€œAnd so, if the audit takes place after the canvass, I’m not sure what the point would be.”

And there’s something else.

La Rue pointed out that representatives from the Republican Party were involved in the hand count of vote center ballots that was conducted by the county and finished a week ago. He said there were no discrepancies found.

He said it’s too late for the party to come in now, after that count in which they participated was conducted, and claim that’s not the right procedure and demand something else.

There is the legal option for Hannah to grant an injunction to delay the county canvass. But doing so would raise issues that are even more complex.

The state is set to conduct its formal canvass Nov. 30, something that requires all 15 counties to be done by then.

And even if that legally can be pushed back because Maricopa County is not ready, there’s a potentially more serious problem.

The National Conference of State Legislatures says federal law requires all state recounts and court contests to be completed by Dec. 8. And six days later the 11 electors pledged to the winning candidate β€” currently Joe Biden in Arizona β€” cast their ballots.

Central to the issue is that requirement to take some ballots from a certain number of precincts, selected by officials of both parties, to count by hand and compare that with what the machines tallied.

If the audit comes in within a certain margin, then everything is fine.

But if one or more races are outside that margin, then the process is repeated with ever-larger batches. And at a certain point if discrepancies persist, there even are provision for a judge ordering the source code for the computer software reviewed by a special master.

All that plugs into contentions by some Republicans that the voting machines were somehow programmed to delete votes for Trump. That includes allegations β€” with no proof offered β€” that equipment from Dominion Voting Systems, which is used in Maricopa County, had software glitches that led to mistakes in vote tallies.

Kelli Ward, who chairs the state GOP that has filed the suit, said Monday in a video message that, as far as she is concerned, the election is β€œfar from over.”

β€œWe have questions that have to be answered,” she said. β€œWe are working with the Trump campaign, hand in hand, to make sure the election in Arizona has integrity.”

This isn’t the only lawsuit waiting to be resolved.

Attorney Alexander Kolodin wants Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Margaret Mahoney to rule that one of his clients never actually got a chance to cast her ballot at her polling place. And he contends that another client, while casting a ballot, has no assurance it ever was counted.

But Kolodin conceded that even if he wins his lawsuit, it won’t have any effect on this year’s election.

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