Hours-Long Wait Times, Massive Line in Maricopa County GOP Stronghold After Vote Machines Malfunction
The wait time to vote in the Republican stronghold of Anthem, Arizona, in the northern part of Maricopa County was about two hours in the early afternoon Tuesday following ballot tabulation machine problems.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates confirmed about 1 in 5 of the ballot tabulation machines countywide was not working as of Tuesday morning.
Arizona Republican National Committee member Tyler Bowyer posted a video from the Outlets at Anthem polling place about 7:20 Tuesday morning in which the polling site director explained that one of the voting tabulation machines was not working while the other was only successfully taking ballots 75 percent of the time.
“So 25 percent of them are being misread and it could be printer issue or it could be the tabulator itself,” said the director, who wore a badge indicating his name was Richard.
“So when it’s misread you have an option to put it into what’s called ‘Box 3,’ whether it goes downtown and gets read manually or whether it gets refed into our tabulators,” he said.
Box 3 is a secure box below the tabulation machine into which ballots can be inserted.
Long lines in Anthem, Arizona with Poll Workers explaining that the @maricopacounty machines are not working.
Do not get out of line! pic.twitter.com/lInh8KnTz3
— Tyler Bowyer 🇺🇸 (@tylerbowyer) November 8, 2022
When The Western Journal went to the Anthem polling site at approximately 1:15 pm, Richard said the issue had been resolved and was caused by the ballot printers.
The line to vote at that time appeared to be about a quarter-mile long.
Quarter mile-long voting line at Republican stronghold Anthem, AZ polling location on north side of Phoenix. Spoke with site director and he said ballot printing machines that were malfunctioning this morning are now working. @AZGOP @elliott_echols @tylerbowyer pic.twitter.com/rb065hwZbM
— Randy DeSoto (@RandyDeSoto) November 8, 2022
Lucas McLuhan, who works for The Western Journal, went to the Anthem location to vote in the early afternoon Tuesday and waited an hour and 45 minutes. Two other people said they had spent longer in line.
McLuhan said he was confident GOP gubernatorial Kari Lake would win despite the Election Day voting problems, but he was worried about Republican U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters, who was expected to be in a much tighter race against incumbent Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly, according to polls.
“It’s a razor-thin race. The polls have it within one or two points away. If you have any issues at all, it could impact the race,” McLuhan said. “It could go either way at this point.”
Caught up with Lucas who works for @WestJournalism. He said the line to vote in the Republican stronghold of Anthem, AZ on the north side of Phx was 1 hr, 45 mins. He’s concerned the voting machines malfunctioning earlier in the day in Maricopa County will hurt @AZGOP candidates. pic.twitter.com/5KaWLmVk0H
— Randy DeSoto (@RandyDeSoto) November 8, 2022
McLuhan later reported that when he did vote, it took five attempts for the tabulator machine to accept his ballot.
Mesa, another Republican stronghold on the east side of Phoenix, also experienced ballot tabulation problems.
Ok Central Christian voting station in Mesa on Lindsey and Brown the machines are broken, we got turned away! Unacceptable!! @stephen_richer @maricopacounty @katiehobbs @KariLake @bgmasters @charliekirk11 @tylerbowyer pic.twitter.com/VndP51P64x
— aleahall (@aleahall) November 8, 2022
Bowyer wrote that the tabulator where he went to vote in the city would not accept his ballot because the print quality was too poor.
“I just voted in person in MESA & this is how it printed,” he tweeted.
“The reader rejected it & had we not inspected the ballot before voting we likely would have been told just to leave the ballot behind. The Poll Chief reprinted a new ballot. She said this is an ongoing issue with printers!” Bowyer added.
I just voted in person in MESA & this is how it printed. The reader rejected it & had we not inspected the ballot before voting we likely would have been told just to leave the ballot behind
The Poll Chief reprinted a new ballot. She said this is an ongoing issue with printers! pic.twitter.com/Gpy2vUcYzL
— Tyler Bowyer 🇺🇸 (@tylerbowyer) November 8, 2022
Lake tweeted Tuesday morning that the tabulation machines in Democratic strongholds such as south and central Phoenix and Tempe did not seem to be experiencing the same troubles.
She encouraged her supporters to vote in these locations if they could.
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