Arizona attorney general's office wants answers about 'myriad problems' faced by Maricopa County voters before results are certified



Before the results are certified, the Arizona attorney general's office wants answers about the bungled administration of the 2022 general election in Maricopa County. On Saturday, the AGO wrote to the Maricopa County attorney's affice, raising problems voters faced in ballot tabulators and ballot-on-demand printers, along with potential election law violations.

The AGO's demand for transparency came a day after Arizona's Cochise County board delayed certifying the election results and amid Kari Lake's continued insistence that she might still win.

What are the details?

In a Nov. 19 letter addressed to the Maricopa County attorney's office, Arizona Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Wright noted that the AGO's Election Integrity Unit has received "hundreds of complaints ... pertaining to issues related to the administration of the 2022 General Election in Maricopa County."

"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 Wright.

On the basis of these complaints and the problematic administration of the election, Wright underscored how Arizonans "deserve a full report and accounting of the myriad problems" that occurred in Maricopa County on Election Day.

In addition to voters' complaints, Wright indicated there was additional cause for concern, given that "statements made by both Chairman Gates and Recorder Richer, along with information Maricopa County released through official modes of communication appear to confirm potential statutory violations of [Arizona election law]."

Having invoked Arizona Revised Statutes Section 16-1021, which allows the attorney general to "enforce the provisions of this title through civil and criminal actions" in any election for state office, the AGO demanded answers about:

  • Election Day ballot-on-demand printer configuration settings;
  • Election Day "check-out" procedures; and the
  • apparent contravention of statutory guidelines and failure to segregate, count, tabulate, tally, and transport ballots that voters were otherwise unable to have tabulated using on-site tabulators.
Wright requested that a response be given on or before Nov. 28.
\u201cBREAKING: The Elections Integrity Unit of the Arizona Attorney General\u2019s Office has officially demanded a response from Maricopa County "pertaining to issues related to the administration of the 2022 General Election in Maricopa County."\u201d
— Charlie Kirk (@Charlie Kirk) 1668907097

Printer problems

Wright stated that at least 60 voting locations had problems with their ballot-on-demand printers, "which appeared to have resulted in ballots that were unable to be read by on-site ballot tabulators."

According to Votebeat Arizona, vote-counting machines had trouble tabulating ballots on Election Day "because the timing marks on the ballot — the black lines on the sides that tell the machine where the contests are located so the machine can tally the votes — were not printing correctly. As a result, the machines were rejecting the ballots."

Nearly 27% of the voting centers (60 of the 223) were affected, generating longer wait times and confusion.

Nearly 17,000 Maricopa County voters (7% of all in-person voters) were reportedly "unable to watch machines tabulate their ballots on-site" because of printing malfunctions.

Sworn complaints submitted by election workers employed by Maricopa County indicated the printers had been tested on Nov. 7 "without any apparent problems," Wright noted.

Notwithstanding successful tests the night before, the printers started to malfunction within the first 30 minutes of voting on Election Day.

County Supervisor Chairman Bill Gates said at the time, "There is no question this is frustrating. ... We don’t believe anyone has been disenfranchised."

Gates claimed over the weekend that the printer problems did not disproportionately affect "Republican-leaning areas."

\u201cWe continue to answer your election-related questions this weekend. Here, Chairman @billgatesaz speaks about whether Election Day printer problems impacted certain areas more than others.\u201d
— Maricopa County (@Maricopa County) 1668958420

The AGO's election integrity unit expects a report detailing:

  • the voting centers that experienced these problems;
  • the specific problems at each location; any other printer issues that may have contributed to the problem;
  • a "comprehensive log of all changes to the [ballot-on-demand] printer configuration settings (to include the identity of individuals making changes)";
  • the county's standards for the printer configuration settings "as specified in internal technical specifications and/or manufacturer technical specifications"; and
  • other concerns.

Although the AGO made no claims of fraud or guilt regarding the printer errors, the questions asked appear open to the possibility of malfeasance and meddling.

'Check-out' problems

Wright referenced sworn complaints received by the election integrity unit, which indicated that voters had trouble checking out of voting locations to cast their votes at functional centers.

"Not only have 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 [virtual pollbook] maintained the voter had cast a ballot in the original voting location," Wright wrote in her letter.

This is troubling, suggested Wright, given "Arizona law specifically prohibits provisional ballots to be counted when a voter has signed multiple pollbooks."

The AGO requested a report detailing whether poll workers were properly trained on how to "check out" voters so that they could "lawfully vote in another location" and all those voters who were provided a provisional ballot "due to having already signed an e-pollbook at another Election Day voting location.

'Door 3'

Wright's letter also presses the Maricopa County attorney's office to report on the fate of ballots deposited at "Door 3."

Since tabulators were malfunctioning at multiple locations, affected voters were told to deposit their ballots into a slot on a secure box at each location. According to Votebeat Arizona, the boxes were labeled with a "3" sticker, hence the name "Door 3."

From there, Wright suggested that "non-tabulated ballots were commingled with tabulated ballots at the voting location" prior to being taken to the central elections center.

One sworn complaint suggested that thousands of non-tabulated ballots received at "Door 3" had been put in black duffle bags "intended to be used for tabulated ballots."

Liddy, Lake respond

Thomas Liddy, the civil division chief at the Maricopa County attorney's office addressed in Wright's letter, told Fox News Digital that he will convene with his clients "and begin the process of gathering the materials necessary to respond. As you are undoubtedly aware, Ms. Wright is still working on the AG’s Final Report of the 2020 election. I am looking forward to receiving that as well."

After the AGO's letter went out, Kari Lake told the Daily Mail that the "way they run elections in Maricopa County is worse than in banana republics around this world."

The Associated Press called the race for Hobbs on Nov. 14. Lake trailed Democratic candidate Katie Hobbs by fewer than 18,000 votes and has yet to concede defeat.

"I'll tell you what, I believe at the end of the day that this will be turned around, and I don't know what the solution will be, but I still believe I will become governor, and we are going to restore honesty to our elections," said Lake.

Arizona election officials report issues with vote-counting machines at 20% of polling locations in Maricopa County



Maricopa County Board of Supervisors chairman Bill Gates reported on Tuesday morning that approximately 20% of the voting centers in Arizona's largest county are experiencing issues with vote-counting tabulators.

"About 20% of the locations out there where there's an issue with the tabulator where some of the ballots that after people have voted them, they try and run them through the tabulator and they're not going through," Gates stated.

\u201c#BREAKING Chairman @maricopacounty Board of Supervisors @billgatesaz says 20% voting centers are having issues w/tabulators. He says the ballot can still be dropped in the box, it will just get centrally tabulated tonight. He says they\u2019re working to fix the issue. #Election2022\u201d
— Ali Bradley (@Ali Bradley) 1667925045

Gates stated that if the tabulator does not accept a ballot, voters can place their ballots inside a "secure box," and they will be manually counted in the evening at a central counting location. A majority of Arizona counties tabulate ballots this way, Gates added.

"This will function much like early voting functions, in that we would get your ballot back, once we've signature-verified it, we would send it to our central tabulators," Gates said. "Ballots that are [at the central location] will already be signature-verified, so we won't need to confirm identity but we will central-tabulate them."

Voters across the county took to social media to report tabulator malfunctions at multiple Maricopa County locations. Residents captured videos of election workers announcing issues with the vote-counting machines.

"We have two tabulators. One of the tabulators is not working," an election worker at one Maricopa voting center explained to voters waiting in line to cast their ballots. "The other tabulator is taking about 75% successful. So, 25% of them are being misread. And it could be a printer issue, or it could be the tabulator itself. So, when it's misread, you have an option to put it into what's called box three, and it gets read. Whether it goes downtown and gets read manually or whether it gets refed into our tabulator."

\u201cBREAKING: Reports out of Maricopa county of Machines \u201cnot working\u201d and ballots being \u201cmisread\u201d\n\nWHAT IS GOING ON?\n\u201d
— Benny Johnson (@Benny Johnson) 1667917997

Another video shared on social media captured an election worker explaining how ballots placed into box three will be counted.

"Tonight, a Republican and a Democrat will sit and go through all of the misread ballots all over the county and count them," the election worker explained. She added that none of the tabulators at the voting location were working correctly.

"Nothing's working for the last half hour," she noted.

\u201cPoll worker in Maricopa County confirms "nothing's working" for the last half hour. Explains misread ballots will get counted downtown tonight.\u201d
— Charlie Kirk (@Charlie Kirk) 1667925913

According to the elections department, as of Tuesday, there were 2,463,264 active voters in Maricopa County. As of 11 a.m. ET, roughly 44,000 voters had cast their ballots in person.

Katie Hobbs (D), Arizona's current secretary of state and a gubernatorial candidate, refused calls to recuse herself from overseeing the midterm elections.

The tabulator issues in Maricopa County are expected to delay the announcement of the results in the critical gubernatorial race between Democrat Katie Hobbs and Republican Kari Lake and the Senate race between Democrat Mark Kelly and Republican Blake Masters.

\u201cScottsdale Arizona: 11735 N SCOTTSDALE RD\u2026 Machines are down all over the place.. Many COULDN\u2019T even get their votes counted.. \n\nThis is happening all just Maricopa county not just at this location.. Why is this happening @stephen_richer @katiehobbs ??\u201d
— DoBetterAZ.com (@DoBetterAZ.com) 1667929271