Arizona’s Attorney General’s Election Integrity Unit sent a letter to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, demanding officials explain why the county experienced numerous problems on Election Day.
“These complaints go beyond pure speculation, but include first-hand witness accounts that raise concerns regarding Maricopa’s lawful compliance with Arizona election law,” wrote Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Wright.
Wright mentioned the problems with the ballet-on-demand (BOD) printers in “at least 60 voting locations.” The printers did not have uniform configuration settings. The state and federal laws require uniform ballots but that doesn’t always happen so they require uniformity of ballots “within a county.”
The on-site ballot tabulators could not read the ballots.
Here is the kicker: “Based on sworn complaints submitted by election workers employed by Maricopa County, the BOD printers were tested on Monday, November 7 without any apparent problems. Many of those election workers report that despite the successful testing the night before, the tabulators began experiencing problems reading ballots printed by the BOD printers within the first thirty minutes of voting on Tuesday, November 8, 2022.”
I searched for videos of Maricopa County ballot machines on YouTube when I wrote about the machines on Election Day. The videos I found showed officials testing the new machines over and over.
The county bought new machines after the 2020 election fiasco.
In Maricopa County, people can vote at any polling location. They do not have assigned places. This became a problem with the “check-out” procedures:
Following widespread reports of problems at voting locations on Election Day, Chairman Gates publicly stated that voters who had already checked in to e Pollbook, but were having difficulties voting could “check out” of that voting location, and would be able to nonetheless vote in another voting location. Based on sworn complaints received by the Unit, not only have poll workers reported that they were not trained and/or not provided with information on how to execute “check out” procedures, but many voters have reported the second voting location required the voter to cast a provisional ballot as the e-Pollbooks maintained the voter had cast a ballot in the original voting location.
“Door 3” is the last issue brought up by Wright.
“Door 3” is a “secure box where people were told to place ballots that were unreadable by the tabulators.”
Maricopa County officials admitted boxes “in some voting locations” had “non-tabulated ballots” with the tabulated ballots.”
“Further, we have received a sworn complaint from an election observer indicating that more than 1700 “Door 3” non-tabulated ballots from one voting location were placed in black duffle bags that were intended to be used for tabulated ballots.” Wright pointed out.
Thomas Liddy, the civil division chief at the Maricopa County’s Attorney’s Office, promised the office would gather “the materials necessary to respond.”
Gubernatorial Republican candidate Kari Lake claimed the problems “unfairly disenfranchised” her voters on Election Day.
Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs, the current secretary of state, won the election.
Lake still thinks she will come out on top, though.
“Arizonans deserve a full report and accounting of the myriad problems that occurred in relation to Maricopa County’s administration of the 2022 General Election,” concluded Wright. “As the canvass is looming, and these issues relate to Maricopa County’s ability to lawfully certify election results – the Unit requests a response to the aforementioned issues on or before Maricopa County submits its official canvass to the Secretary of State, which must occur on or before November 28, 2022.”
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