Questions for Arizona’s largest county loom over the discrepancies on election day. It is already known that Maricopa county’s vote tabulation machines were malfunctioning, but it turns out that election officials were much more involved than residents were led to believe. Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich is demanding answers from officials.
The Attorney General has issued a letter insisting on a detailed report from Maricopa County after problems tabulating ballots affected 70 voting locations. Hundreds of complaints beyond speculation have been turned in to the Elections Integrity Unit. Citizens who wrote describe first-hand witness accounts that raise concerns about compliance with Arizona election law. Additionally, Maricopa County released official modes of communication confirming potential statutory violations of title 16.
Ballot-on-demand printers reportedly had printer issues despite working in perfect order on Monday, November 7. Within the first 30 minutes of voting on Tuesday, November 8th, printers had non-uniform configuration settings, which caused unreadable on-site ballots tabulators. Election workers sent in sworn complaints verifying that the printers worked adequately the day before. Chairman Bill Gates and Recorder Stephen Richer took to Twitter to update voters on election day.
Here is a message from Chairman Bill Gates and Recorder Stephen Richer with an update for @maricopacounty voters on Elections Day. pic.twitter.com/OkQczCklGb
— Maricopa County Elections Department (@MaricopaVote) November 8, 2022
Maricopa County officials say they handled ballots that could not be adequately tabulated by putting them in lockbox “Door 3.” But by the end of November 8, some polls were not correctly separated. It is impossible to know which votes were not tabulated, and there is a high potential that some were counted multiple times while others were not.
The county failed to adhere to the statutory guidelines when transporting the Door 3 ballots. One election observer complained that more than 1700 Door 3 non-tabulated polls were shoved in black duffel bags for tabulated votes. These issues raise concerns about the county’s ability to certify election results lawfully.
The Attorney General’s office is demanding they receive Maricopa County’s detailed report before the deadline to confirm the results on November 28. Cochise County board members are also delaying their confirmation of the results until November 28 due to concerns about the machines. If the GOP can prove problems with the segregation of ballots, that will raise more issues to the previous concerns of the timeframe it took to count votes.
