Maricopa Voting Machine Failures Much More Widespread Than County Originally Indicated
The tabulator and ballot printing issues that plagued Maricopa County on Election Day last week were more widespread than county officials originally indicated.
In a video posted to social media the morning of the election, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates stated that “about 20 percent” of polling locations were experiencing tabulator problems.
The “fog of war” may have been the reason why Gates, with Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer standing beside him, did not realize the problems were more extensive. The county told Patriot Project that 20 percent was an estimate given before noon, which was updated later in the day.
Here is a message from Chairman Bill Gates and Recorder Stephen Richer with an update for @maricopacounty voters on Elections Day. pic.twitter.com/OkQczCklGb
— Maricopa County Elections Department (@MaricopaVote) November 8, 2022
Nonetheless, media outlets continued to report 20 percent throughout the day. That number later jumped up to 60 polling places, or about one-quarter of the total 223 sites.
Since the election, The Washington Post and KNTX-TV (the ABC Phoenix affiliate) have reported that county officials stated that 70 locations, or over 30 percent, had these problems, which the county confirmed to Patriot Project.
However, Rasmussen Reports and Caroline Wren, an adviser for Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, are saying the real number was 48 percent.
Update: New – 48% of Maricopa election centers had printer or tabulator malfunctions on election day, not the previously estimated 20%. And no such widespread issues were reported during the early voting period that preceded election day and used the very same equipment. Wow. https://t.co/EEzH2LbcZs
— Rasmussen Reports (@Rasmussen_Poll) November 17, 2022
“We started early voting on Oct 12. And why did zero percent of the voting centers encounter tabulation problems during early voting when we know that Democrats were all heavily voting?” Wren asked in a Real America’s Voice interview on Thursday.
“Why did that number then jump up to 48 percent of voting centers encountering tabulation problems on Election Day when voters voted for Kari Lake 3 to 1?” she added.
Wren shared that these are some of the questions Lake’s attorneys have put in writing to Maricopa County officials.
Caroline gets it. pic.twitter.com/7WQBDAA0rZ
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 18, 2022
The county refuted the 48 percent figure, standing by the 70 reported polling locations with tabulation machine and printer problems. The county added that all early ballots were processed at a central tabulating location, but the ballot printers were the same ones used during early voting.
The Western Journal obtained a copy of a report from an attorney with the Republican National Committee’s election integrity program.
Seven of the nine locations she visited had tabulator issues.
“After Chairman Bill Gates announced that the problems with the printers had been resolved at around 2:50 p.m., I visited some of the vote centers again to confirm that the problems with the tabulators and printers were in fact resolved,” she said.
“Unfortunately, that was not true for all the vote centers I visited. Mr. Gates also mentioned that one of the options voters had in any vote center in which they encountered the tabulator and/or printer problem was to request to cancel their check-in and go to a different vote center,” the attorney added.
“So, in my afternoon rounds, I asked the inspectors if they were informing voters of the option to cancel their check-in and go to a different vote center. Only one inspector said they were informing voters of that option.”
KNTX-TV reported that 57 percent of the polling locations where the ballot printer and tabulation problems occurred were Republican-leaning precincts, and Lake won 56 percent of them.
Despite all the problems, Lake was able to close Democrat Katie Hobbs’ lead from double digits (about 183,000 votes), thanks to Hobbs’ advantage in early voting, to less than a percent (about 12,000 votes) by the Wednesday following the election, thanks to Election Day votes.
In her August primary, Lake took the lead over establishment Republican pick Karrin Taylor Robson the day after the election because of Election Day totals. Robson, like Hobbs, had leaped out to a double-digit lead on election night due to early voting and mail-in ballots.
Unlike in the primary race, Lake never had the lead against Hobbs. That may arguably have been due to tabulator machine problems across Maricopa County.
Given the less than 17,000 votes separating Lake and Hobbs, it would take a net of approximately 240 Lake voters per the 70 ill-functioning polling stations to make the difference.
If the number of centers was really 48 percent (107 locations), it would only take 156 Lake voters not being able to wait through the hours-long lines at multiple locations to change the outcome.
Here is the problem w/ what happened in Maricopa County on Election Day. This is Anthem, north of Phoenix at about 1:15 pm. Ruby red district of about 30K people. Only one polling location. Ballot tabulators not working in the morning. 2 hr wait to vote midday and still at 6 pm. pic.twitter.com/CY35yQWwq5
— Randy DeSoto (@RandyDeSoto) November 14, 2022
Lake told supporters in a video posted Thursday, “I am still in this fight with you.”
“What happened to Arizonans on Election Day is unforgivable. Tens of thousands of Maricopa County voters were disenfranchised,” she said as footage of the long lines throughout the county appeared on screen.
Arizona, we are still in the fight. pic.twitter.com/ytaGvqG5J0
— Kari Lake (@KariLake) November 17, 2022
“I have assembled the best and brightest legal team, and we are exploring every avenue to correct the many wrongs that have been done this past week.”
The Lake campaign has called for a redo of the election in Maricopa County.
A version of this article originally appeared on Patriot Project.
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