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Update from Maricopa County, AZ
I drove to my local polling place in Mesa, AZ, boldly strode in, and dropped off my ballot. The turnout was very large for an off-time (2:30 p.m.); there were no problems with the machines; voters, volunteers, and workers were all happy and friendly.
Many other voters in Maricopa County, however, weren’t so lucky. This is the largest county in Arizona, containing Phoenix, its many suburbs, and more than 60% of the state population. Following two years of “stop the steal” recounts and a low-trust environment, one would think the Republicans running the county’s voting operations would have been ready. You would have been wrong.
An estimated 27% of polling places had problems with one or both of their tabulation machines.
🚨🚨A poll worker in all-important Maricopa County tells Election Day voters the machines are broken. pic.twitter.com/meBTd4Vi2M
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 8, 2022
County officials now say they have determined the source of the error and are correcting it.
.@maricopavote has identified the solution for the tabulation issues at about 60 Vote Centers. County technicians have changed the printer settings, which seems to have resolved this issue. It appears some of the printers were not producing dark enough timing marks on ballots. 1/
— Maricopa County (@maricopacounty) November 8, 2022
Despite the error, I believe that the votes will be counted. GOP election lawyers are all over this vote count and will aggressively challenge any shenanigans. Ricochet favorite Harmeet Dhillon is heading up that effort:
Latest guidance for Maricopa County voters:
If you’ve *checked in* at a Maricopa County voting location where tabulators don’t work, you should *not* leave & go to another location without casting a vote. Your provisional ballot at new location likely will not count/cont’d/
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 8, 2022
You had one job, Maricopa County. You failed at it. Everyone involved should turn in their resignations. This cannot happen in a purportedly first-world county.
Update (7 p.m. ET): Harmeet has filed a lawsuit. PDF here.
Published in General
Thanks for keeping us informed, Jon. Arizona is not the only place seeing “glitches” in voting machinery. The Republican observers will have their hands full today.
This is pretty funny, in a way.
The idea in Maricopa County was to instill confidence in voters by allowing them to feed their own ballots into the tabulating machine to be counted. Imagine the feeling if you did so, and the machine didn’t work.
Epic fail.
The reported source of the problem is the printers, not the tabulating machines themselves. This is due to someone’s brilliant idea to print ballots on the spot, so that a voter can vote at any polling place, and doesn’t have to find his own local precinct. Like we used to do, back when we were grown-ups.
Perhaps this is an accommodation for the iPhone generation. I sometimes get the impression that they can’t get anywhere without Siri or Alexa telling them where to turn. It must be strange, not to know where one is.
I am beyond disgusted. No excuses will suffice.
Might have been better for County Officials to have spent the past two years IMPROVING THEIR OWN PERFORMANCE instead of attacking everyone concerned about election integrity. I thought 2020 was fair in this county, but when I even questioned basic election competence, I’d get a DM on Twitter lecturing me not to be an “election denier.”
The Epoch Times has a good article with all the places having machine troubles today.
But for whom?
Just added an update. Harmeet Dhillon has filed a lawsuit against Maricopa County. Here’s the PDF.
I cannot understand the why of this issue. In Oregon for example you have to be registered 21 days before an election to vote in that election. If you do not meet the registration deadline you do not receive a ballot and will have to wait for the next election to vote. I’m sure the county election offices are busy up to the cutoff point. After that date they have 21 days to trouble shoot any problems that might appear before the polls close.
Here is a statement by the Maricopa County Recorder. I am passing this on, I am not vouching for it, agreeing with it or disagreeing with it:
As has always been the case, every valid vote will be counted. And has always been the case, I remain committed to helping in any way I can. Stephen RicherMaricopa County Recorder P.S. We have received and verified over 900,000 early ballots, and those will be ready for release at 8:00 PM tonight when results first become available.
Any ruling on the request for a TRO?
One quick note. These are really pretty young lawyers, going by their State Bar Numbers. My State Bar Number is less than 005000, and the lowest number is 020000. Several are in the 30,000’s.
I don’t believe the statement.
Every legal vote has been counted?
Prove it.
Yeah, those bar numbers made me feel pretty old, too. Not as old as you, though! :)
Edited to add: My bar # is around 19,000, and I’m 54 with 24 years experience. The lead guy at Snell & Wilmer, Brett Johnson, graduated from law school in 1999, so he’s probably in his mid-40s. I didn’t know him, or the other guy at the same firm (Eric Spencer) when I was at Snell.
Also, remember that sometimes lawyers move into Arizona, so it’s possible for a very experienced lawyer to have a high bar number.
I remember being told to just forget about 2020 and work towards fixing things for the future…
Sucker.
Drawer 3 is the “Adjudication Drawer” where they can count it any way they like.
I was admitted in 1976, and had just turned 24. I went through undergraduate school in 3 years and then 3 years of law school. (My father had gone back to graduate school after having a bunch of kids and he impressed on us to get your final degree without ever stopping.)
I was involved in a foreclosure case, and another lawyer said, “Hey, I will call the guy with the highest bar number as he will be more likely to do what I want.”
“By Friday.”
The joke in 2009 was “Barry’s dad wanted his son to one day be president of a third world country and he’s trying to make his dad’s dream come true.” With Biden stealing the election and giving Barry a third term, we’re there.
Wow – this is really unbelievable in a modern age with the latest technology…….paging Elon Musk – create new voting machines??
You would think whoever was in charge of the election process would make sure that . . . oh, nevermind . . .
@exjon, great piece except that Maricopa County elections aren’t really run by Republicans. Maybe some RINOs, but the rest are Dems. E.g., look up the history on Stephen Richer, if you’re not already familiar.
So is Lake planning on challenging the election results?
She just tweeted for people to pay attention as it is not over… (Tried but failed to copy her tweet.)
I just saw an interesting Tweet asking the rhetorical question, “If the left got this upset about Musk buying Twitter, can you imagine their reaction if he bought Dominion Voting Systems?” ; )
There should be a rule that the last state or two to count their votes should lose a representative for the next election, if the delay is more than, I don’t know, 24 hours.
Past time for heads to roll in Maricopa. Start with Bill Gates. An extremely incompetent if not corrupt group of people.
Another “Blue Screen of Death” by a Bill Gates (yeah, I know, its not the same one, but it did shock me the other day)
I’m sorry but no, the rule should be from here on going forward: the election ends when all the votes are accurately counted.
Period.
I am just as distrustful of election results are announced for candidates when Zero Percent of the ballots have been counted as I am of elections that take weeks.