Voting snag in Arizona fuels election conspiracy theories

PHOENIX (AP) — A printing malfunction at about one-quarter of the polling places across Arizona’s most populous county slowed down voting Tuesday, but election officials assured voters that every ballot would be counted.

Still, the issue at 60 of 223 vote centers in Maricopa County gave rise to conspiracy theories about the integrity of the vote in the pivotal state. Former President Donald Trump, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and others weighed in to claim that Democrats were trying to subvert the vote of Republicans, who tend to show up in greater numbers in person on Election Day.

Lake and several other candidates on the Arizona ballot have pushed false claims about the 2020 presidential race, amplifying Trump’s lies about a stolen election. But election officials from both political parties and members of Trump’s own Cabinet have said there was no widespread voter fraud and that Trump lost reelection to Democrat Joe Biden.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Ryan denied a request from Republicans to keep the polls open, saying that he didn’t see evidence that people were not allowed to vote.

About 4.5 million people live in the sprawling city and about 2.4 million are registered voters. More than 80% cast their ballots early, most by mail, and the county said about 230,000 had voted in-person as of 6 p.m. Pools close at 7, unless the GOP lawsuit is successful.

At issue were printers that were not producing dark enough markings on the ballots, which required election officials to change the printer settings. Until then, some voters who tried to insert their ballots into voting tabulators were forced to wait and use other machines or were told they could leave their ballots in a drop box. Those votes were expected to be counted Wednesday.

The county recorder, Republican Stephen Richer, said he was sorry for the inconvenience.

“Every legal vote will be tabulated. I promise,” he said.

The issue affected an unknown number of ballots in the county that includes metropolitan Phoenix.

When voters in the country check in, they are handed a ballot for their specific election precinct; the races for which they can vote are printed for them. That process allows voters to go to any voting location in the county. The voters then fill out the ballot and put it into a tabulation machine to be counted.

Some of the tabulators at 60 voting sites did not read the ballots because the printers did not produce what are known as “timing marks” dark enough to be read by the machines. Voters who had their ballots rejected were told they could try the location’s second tabulator, put it in a ballot box to be counted at the central facility later or cancel it and go to another vote center.

The majority of Arizona counties do not count ballots at polling places. Officials bring the ballots to a central facility for counting. The ballots that were left in the drop boxes in Maricopa County will be counted at their central site. The county is home to about 4.1 million people.

The county’s main election building where votes are tabulated was the scene of protests by hundreds of Trump supporters, some of whom were armed, after he lost in 2020. The county has tightene security around the downtown Phoenix building and the county sheriff, Paul Penzone, said Monday that his department was prepared to handle any issues.

The problem slowed down voting in both traditionally Democratic and Republican areas, especially at an outlet mall in conservative far-flung Anthem. Some voters there reported waiting several hours to be able to vote with the only one of two tabulators working.

Arizona law allows anyone still in line when the polls close to vote.

By midday, nearly half of the voting centers countywide reported no wait at all, and 210 of the centers reported a wait of a half hour or less. The Anthem location had a wait of about an hour.

At a polling place on the other side of the county, Phoenix voter Maggie Perini said she was able to vote without problem, but that a man next her in line struggled with his ballot at a different tabulator. When he switched to the machine she had used, the ballot went through.

“And then I know one woman who was coming out, she tried like four or five times for it to work and it wasn’t working,” said Perini. “And someone had told her she could leave her ballot and she’s like, No, no, no, no, no.”

Voter Michael McCuarrie said his ballot wasn’t read so he dropped it off to be counted later.

“Fine as long as the vote is counted,” said McCuarrie. “I don’t mind.”

Lake told reporters after she cast her ballot midday that she was “embarrassed for Arizona.”

“My advice is to stay in line. Don’t let this craziness stop you,” Lake said.

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Associated Press writers Bob Christie and Jacques Billeaud contributed to this report.
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This story has been corrected to reflect that there are 223 vote centers, not 232.