Hi, I’m your #azauditpool reporter this afternoon. The coliseum is fairly deserted right now. Not sure how the worker/observer shift changes correlate to the pool shift changes, but there are maybe 50 people on the floor and work only appears to be happening at the red tables

Five tables of each color (yellow, green, blue and pink/red) each have two shelves for ballots, not the three we saw during the walkthrough last week. The computer monitors that were above them are also gone #azauditpool

Got a couple minutes to ask @BennettArizona questions before he ran off to help someone lost in the parking lot. Hopefully more time after.

He says he has no update on the number of ballots counted, but that they’re at 46 tables instead of 20 yesterday. #azauditpool

There aren’t enough workers right now to even staff 20 tables, but Bennett says subcontractor Wake TSI is working through temp agencies to get enough people hired to man all 46 tables and go to three shifts. #azauditpool

Bennett on @anthonykernAZ: Candidates aren’t automatically excluded.

“He can't change any of the votes on those ballots, so if he met the other requirements that they have for their counters, which he obviously has because he's a counter, then he's counting.” #azauditpool

Interrupting this string of Bennett answers to note that counting has begun at each of the 20 tables with easels. Each has five workers: one putting ballots on easels, one taking them off and three tallying votes. #azauditpool

Bennett said he believes this possibly-now-deleted tweet refers to Wednesday’s letter from the @BrennanCenter asking for DOJ to send federal election monitors. He says it’s a “completely fallacious position” and he’s composing a response letter to DOJ that we’ll see #azauditpool

Orange-shirted observers have made it to the floor and one brave woman by one of the green tables is wearing heels and a church hat. #azauditpool

More from @BennettArizona: when he said they’d be done when they need to leave the coliseum, he didn’t necessarily mean May 14. They might move the ballots to a secure location during graduations, take a break for four or five days and resume on May 18. #azauditpool

Last bit from @BennettArizona: he came back and offered a “scoop” that they returned four trucks of equipment to @MaricopaVote this morning. I think we already knew that from the county, but there’s the number of trucks. #azauditpool

H/t to @DillonReedRose for grabbing the Senate’s agreement with the Arizona State Fair Board: nothing in here about the possibility of taking a break after May 14 and returning later: https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/20615178-election-audit-loa-april-2021-signed

Counting each ballot seems to take an average of 10-15 seconds between when it’s put on an easel, viewed by three counters and removed. There are delays of 10 minutes or more when it’s time to switch to a new box of ballots. #azauditpool

In addition to the counters, there are three teams of people (one red, one blue, one green) who are passing ballots under an overhead camera and then putting them in boxes. #azauditpool

A man in a red shirt just walked over to a red table carrying a yellow shirt, which he folded and placed over a chair he then sat in and now he appears to be resting. No idea what that means; it was just odd to watch. #azauditpool

One man with a voice that carries is thinking of taking tomorrow off. “I’m just so gosh-darn tired.” We’re far enough away in the press box that all I can really hear from most folks is a gentle murmur. #azauditpool

Cowboy Hat Andy, who kicked @utilityreporter out this morning and shut the door on half the local press before a news conference last week, just did a loop to scan for cell phones. He didn’t appear to find any. #azauditpool

Garage-style doors leading outside just opened so a moving-style truck could back up. I can’t see what’s being loaded or unloaded from here. #azauditpool

It’s the birthday of somebody on the floor. A group of counters just sang happy birthday. #azauditpool

Each table of counters has a sheet in a color matching their table where they mark each counted ballot. When they’re done, runners in purple shirts bring the colored sheets to people in black. There are also two women in pink shirts and I don’t know their jobs yet. #azauditpool

When @jeremyduda was here, completed boxes of ballots were stacked on the side of the room by the press box. Still eight boxes on pallets there, but now the finished ones are being returned to a gated area on the other side of the room. Five so far this afternoon. #azauditpool

Plot twist! One box closed with red tape that seemed to be complete just got sent to the red scanning table. All those ballots are being sent under cameras (again?) #azauditpool

There are at least two large white birds in the stadium. They just flew across the floor. #azauditpool

Some kind of issue or confusion at the blue camera table. Two guys keep flipping a ballot over and over again and seem frustrated. #azauditpool

Black shirt guy and a dude with an American flag neck gaiter who was previously in green but now in blue are on the case. It seems this stack of ballots had some upside down. Moving now. #azauditpool