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'I Probably Voted for the Wrong Person': Video Exposes Absolute Mess with Ballots on Election Day

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Turning Point USA president Charlie Kirk shared a video Monday from a Maricopa County, Arizona, polling location showing firsthand the vote machine tabulation problems thousands of people experienced on Election Day last week.

County officials stated that day that one-in-five polling voting was having these issues caused by poor ballot print quality preventing the tabulators from reading the votes cast.

The Washington Post reported that ultimately 70 of the county’s 223 polling locations experienced the tabulator reading problem, so over 30 percent versus the 20 percent county officials had originally indicated.

In the video posted by Kirk, who is a strong supporter of Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, a man tries multiple times to get a tabulator machine to accept his ballot.

He first asked, which one he should use, and someone said, “One’s as bad as the other…Choose your poison.”

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The voter tried two tabulators, but they wouldn’t accept the ballot.

“It’s never going to go through, is it?” the man said.

Should there be an audit of the Arizona election?

Someone stated that a person who just voted before him had his ballot go through on the first attempt.

“I probably voted for the wrong person,” the voter wryly responded.

Kirk tweeted, “This same scene played out tens of thousands of times all across Maricopa County.”

“How many voters were disenfranchised or simply ran out of time? If the majority of [Election Day] voters were Democrats, this would be the number 1 news story in America still today. Total joke,” he added.

The poll worker in the video did inform the voter he could put his ballot in the “Box 3” slot below the tabulator machine. There it was to be taken to Maricopa County’s central processing facility in downtown Phoenix for later counting.

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County officials said approximately 17,000 Election Day ballots went into “Box 3.”

The polling location in Anthem — a ruby red community of about 30,000 people north of Phoenix — was one of the locations in Maricopa County that experienced ballot tabulator problems on Election Day. Anthem also happens to be the home of The Western Journal.

Arizona Republican National Committee member Tyler Bowyer posted a video from the Outlets at Anthem polling place at about 7:20 a.m. Tuesday morning on Election Day 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.

Upon hearing this news, a woman responded to Richard that she did not trust her vote to be counted if it was sent downtown. She left the line announcing, “I’ll come back.”

I went over to see how the vote was going at the Anthem polling location at approximately 1:15 p.m. I spoke with Richard who told me the printer issue was fixed and the tabulator machines were now working.

However, it took Lucas McLuhan, who works for The Western Journal, five times to get a tabulator to accept his ballot at approximately 2:45 p.m.

Lucas also had to wait almost two hours to vote, which is what those in line told me when I asked at around 1:30 p.m. and 6 p.m. When I returned at 8:30 p.m. the last of those who had made it into line by 7 p.m. when the polls closed, were still awaiting their chance to cast a ballot.

I would say the line was probably a quarter of a mile long at 1:30 p.m. on Election Day.


If Kari Lake and some of the other Republican candidates like attorney general candidate Abe Hamadeh should come up short, the only fair remedy would be to redo the Maricopa County election.

Sixty percent of Arizona voters live in the county.

Hamadeh tweeted on Saturday, “REMEMBER: 72%+ of the votes on Election Day in person were Republican. When you have 30% of the tabulating machines failing, causing people to leave the lines and give up. This is voter suppression targeting a political party.”


“Who benefits?” is the question many ask when something bizarre like 30 percent of the printers malfunctioning on Election Day happens.

In this case, Democrat Secretary of State and gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs may be one of the main beneficiaries.

It could all be coincidence, incompetence, etc., but regardless the only fair remedy if Hobbs “wins” is a Maricopa redo, this time with the election done right.

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Randy DeSoto has written more than 2,000 articles for The Western Journal since he joined the company in 2015. He is a graduate of West Point and Regent University School of Law. He is the author of the book "We Hold These Truths" and screenwriter of the political documentary "I Want Your Money."
Randy DeSoto is the senior staff writer for The Western Journal. He wrote and was the assistant producer of the documentary film "I Want Your Money" about the perils of Big Government, comparing the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama. Randy is the author of the book "We Hold These Truths," which addresses how leaders have appealed to beliefs found in the Declaration of Independence at defining moments in our nation's history. He has been published in several political sites and newspapers.

Randy graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point with a BS in political science and Regent University School of Law with a juris doctorate.
Birthplace
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Nationality
American
Honors/Awards
Graduated dean's list from West Point
Education
United States Military Academy at West Point, Regent University School of Law
Books Written
We Hold These Truths
Professional Memberships
Virginia and Pennsylvania state bars
Location
Phoenix, Arizona
Languages Spoken
English
Topics of Expertise
Politics, Entertainment, Faith




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