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 midterm results delayed until 'early next week,' says Maricopa County's top election official



The highly-anticipated midterm election results in Arizona will be delayed until "early next week," according to Maricopa County's top election official.

As of Wednesday night, there were approximately 619,000 ballots left to be counted in Arizona, with as many as 410,000 uncounted ballots in Maricopa County.

"County officials said they received 86,000 early ballots Friday through Sunday and an additional 50,000 on Monday," KPNX reported. "A record-setting 290,000 early ballots were dropped off on Election Day, far exceeding the 170,000 early ballots received on Election Day in 2020."

Maricopa County recorder Stephen Richer said, "This number is immense, and it's a conversation that probably Arizona needs to have in terms of public policy because this is a number that keeps on growing."

"In many ways, it's wonderful," he added. "Arizonans appreciate the ease of the voting process and that you can just take your early ballot and drop it off on Election Day, but it does inhibit us from having a higher percentage of returns available within the first 24-48 hours."

Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates warned Americans that the election totals are still several days from being released.

"I think that we’ll see the lion’s share wrap up by early next week," Gates told CNN.

Gates would not give a specific day that all the votes would be counted.

“If you drop off an early ballot, it means it has to come in on Wednesday and start the process of being signature verified,” Gates told CNN. “We have experts here who go through, compare the signature on the outside of the ballot envelope with the signature that we have in our voter registration file, so that takes a while, cause we gotta get that right.”

Previously, Arizona election authorities hinted that the votes might be counted by Friday.

\u201cThe Chairman of Maricopa County's Board of Supervisors just said that there are around 400,000 ballots left to be counted and that they won't be done until "early next week."\u201d
— Greg Price (@Greg Price) 1668108022

Maricopa County’s election department said on Wednesday, "The hand count audit has begun. Republican, Democratic, and Libertarian party chairs drew the races and ballots that hand count audit boards will review Saturday."

Maricopa County, the largest county in the state, is where there were rampant issues with vote tabulating equipment on Election Day. Gates noted that about 20% of voting locations had issues processing ballots on Tuesday morning. The problems stemmed from a "printer issue," and the malfunctioning units were fixed by the afternoon.

"Maricopa County 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 the issue," read a statement from Maricopa County officials. "It appears some of the printers were not producing dark enough timing marks on the ballots."

Gates said that approximately 7% of ballots that were cast on Election Day were put in drop boxes after the tabulators malfunctioned.

Gates and Vice Chairman Clint Hickman said on Wednesday, "We are committed to finding out what factors changed that led to issues at 70 Vote Centers on Tuesday. We are grateful to county techs who found a fix to the problem by adjusting printer settings."

The Arizona results could impact which political party controls the U.S. Senate.

At the time of publication, incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly was leading over Republican Blake Masters by a margin of 51.5% to 46.3%, with 70% of the vote counted.

In the Arizona gubernatorial race, Democrat Katie Hobbs had a slight edge over Republican Kari Lake by a margin of 50.4% to 49.6%, with 70% of the vote counted.

'Protect the vote' rally draws crowds in Phoenix

Peaceful protestors gathered outside Phoenix City Hall on Thursday morning for a "Protect the vote" rally, demanding that every vote be counted everywhere for the 2020 election.