Keys to Understanding Why This Arizona County Still has Election Problems

Cathi Herrod received emails and calls on Election Day about problems in Arizona’s Maricopa County regarding voting machines not accepting ballots, broken ballot tabulators, and other questions about paper ballots.

“Voters are skeptish in Maricopa County over election integrity,” Herrod, president and CEO of the Center for Arizona Policy, said to The Daily Signal in a telephone interview. “People are puzzled why it takes Arizona so long to count votes while Florida is so fast,” Herrod said.

Maricopa County is back in the national spotlight, this time for its problems during and after the election.

In 2020, Joe Biden won the county and narrowly beat Donald Trump to win the state’s 11 Electoral College ballots.

This year’s stakes include the outcome in the governor’s race between Secretary Katie Hobbs (a Democrat whose office oversees election results) and Kari Lake (a Republican challenger, a former TV news anchor). The race for the state’s U.S. Senate seat between Mark Kelly, an incumbent Democrat, and Blake Masters, a Republican challenger.

Both contests are close to calling with 600,000. ballots still being processed statewide, 340,000 of which in Maricopa County.

According to The Associated Press, Hobbs received 51.6% of Thursday night’s vote, compared to Lake’s 49.4%. They were separated by less than 23,000 votes. Kelly was 51.7% ahead of Masters’ 46.2% in the Senate race. They were separated by about 107,000 votes. (A Libertarian candidate had 2%.)

Maricopa, which includes Phoenix, is Arizona’s fourth-largest and most populous county.

J. Christian Adams was visiting the county as president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation. He had traveled there to deliver a scheduled speech.

Adams said that part of it is the size. Adams spoke to The Daily Signal by phone. “Maricopa County is one of the largest voting jurisdictions in America. It is huge. It is even more complicated when mail-in voting is proposed.

Here are some problems with the administration of elections in Maricopa County.

1. What are the Tabulation Machine Issues

The Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates stated that voting machines in more than 25% of Maricopa County were affected by significant malfunctions on Election Day.

Voters were asked drop their ballots in “Door 3”, a drop box to be counted later.

“Some voters didn’t trust Door 3 and that’s why they voted on Election Day,” George Khalaf (president of Data Orbital) and managing partner at Resolute Group, a Phoenix political consultancy firm, told The Daily Signal in an interview.

Officials from Maricopa County claimed that printing problems prevented the machines from reading approximately 17,000 ballots, or 7% of all votes cast for the 2022 election.

“We know that this was difficult, inconvenient and frustrating for those who had to go through it. This is not how they imagined Election Day. In a prepared statement, Clint Hickman, Board Vice Chairman, and Gates stated that they plan to investigate the matter. They also added:

The settings of the printers used at the Ballot-onDemand printers in vote centers were the same as those used in the August primary. The paper was the same thickness. The Elections Department tested hundreds of ballots before the general election.

The Daily Signal reached out to the Maricopa County officials but they did not respond to our phone and email inquiries regarding this report.

However, Gates stated that the situation is not different from previous years but more so when contests are closer. Gates stated that he expected that 99% would be counted by Friday.

Gates stated that he was here to inform reporters that the goal posts had changed. “The reason the goalposts have changed is wonderful news, thanks to the great participation we had during Election Day.”

He stated that “no state or county is done counting right now.”

“ We have so many close races, that everyone is paying attention Maricopa County right this moment,” Gates stated. “Other states, like Florida, were blowouts. “Nobody is paying attention [there] anymore.”

Adams, Public Interest Legal Foundation, stated that the problems should be temporary and that all votes should count.

Adams stated that “Tabulators were just printing out ballots and it can be fixed.” Think of a Coca-Cola machine when you put in a crinkled-up dollar note.

The Center for Arizona Policy’s Herrod stated that it is frustrating for both local residents and officials that the voting machines still work.

Herrod stated in a phone interview that “it is a mystery why tabulation devices worked a week prior to Election Day in a testing and then didn’t work at 60 voter centers on Election Day.”

2. What happens to mail-in ballots?

According to The Associated Press, about 8 out 10 Arizona voters cast ballots before Election Day. This can be done either in person or by mail-in voting.

This can cause a long process as signatures of voters are checked against voter registration records to make sure they did not vote by other means. Election workers must physically smoothen the ballot before it can be submitted to a tabulator.

About 290,000. of the 400,000 uncounted votes in Maricopa County, were mail-in ballots that were dropped off Tuesday at polling sites. Gates stated that this drop-off exceeded the previous record by 70% at Thursday’s press conference.

“Why is it taking so long? Gates stated that this is a topic that is being discussed by many people. It’s very common. This is how things work here in Arizona, and it has been for decades. This is partly due to mail-in vote.

Gates seemed to be averse to the comparison with Florida’s quick count.

He stated that Florida does not allow mail-in ballots to drop off at polling places on Election Day. “We do. We had 290,000. Florida closes early voting on the Sunday before Election Day. We allow drop-off through and on Election Day in Arizona.

Adams said that although there were problems with Election Day in the county, they were minor compared to those with mail ballots.

He stated that elections are complex and that making them less complicated is one way to avoid problems. “Mail-in voting added steps.”

3. What about litigation before elections?

After county officials refused to share information about the partisan makeup of poll workers, the Republican National Committee and other GOP aligned organizations suedMaricopa County in October.

The litigation led to the county sharing the information and hiring more Republican election workers.

4. What were the problems in 2020?

After the Arizona state Senate authorized a forensic audit of Maricopa’s 2020 vote counting, county officials acted indigent. Gates was also included, along with Steve Richer, a Republican county recorder.

The controversial audit was completed in 2021. It found problems with county procedures, but reaffirmed Biden’s victory over Trump.

Khalaf, Data Orbital’s spokesperson, said that the county was still being watched by many people.

Khalaf stated to The Daily Signal that “This election had to go smoothly.” This is not an Arizona thing. It’s a Maricopa County thing. All other Arizona counties did well. We need to change the law to stop this from happening again.”

While acknowledging Biden’s win in 2020, the 2021 state Senate auditor found:

• 23,344 “Mail-in ballots voted at a previous address”
• 9,041 “More ballots [were] returned [by voters] than [were] received.”
• 5,295 “voters [who] could have voted in multiple countries.”
• 2,592 “more duplicates that original ballots.”
• 2,382 “in person voters” who had moved out Maricopa County.

The audit also revealed that 5,295 voters had “potentially voted” in multiple counties.

The objections to the audit were made by hiring a Florida-based cybersecurity company Cyber Ninjas for the review. This was because the company had no experience with elections.

County officials also complained that Cyber Ninjas CEO deleted tweets supporting Trump’s view that the 2020 presidential elections were stolen through fraud.

Do you have a comment about this article? To sound off, please email [email protected] and we’ll consider publishing your edited remarks in our regular “We Hear You” feature. Include the article’s URL or headline, along with your name and the address of your town or state.

The post 4 Keys for Understanding Why This Arizona County Still has Election Problems appeared originally on The Daily Signal.