Arizona AG Demands Maricopa Officials Answer For Reportedly Mixing Counted And Uncounted Ballots

Arizona ballots that couldn’t be counted due to broken machines were mingled in some locations with already tabulated ballots, according to the Elections Integrity Unit of Arizona’s attorney general’s office. State officials listed numerous ways Maricopa County, Arizona, election officials failed to properly segregate, count, tabulate, tally, and transport ballots during the midterm 2022 elections, which likely resulted in significant disenfranchisement of Election Day voters.

In a letter sent to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office by Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Wright, the Elections Integrity Unit of Arizona’s attorney general’s office notified the county that they had “received hundreds of complaints since Election Day pertaining to issues related to the administration of the 2022 General Election” and as a result, are demanding Maricopa County election officials provide answers for the chaos, confusion, and mismanagement of the voting process in a report to be submitted on or before Nov. 28, when Maricopa must send its official canvass to the secretary of state for certification.

The complications raised in the letter include issues with the configuration settings of ballot-on-demand printers at 60-plus voting locations in the county, “which appeared to have resulted in ballots that were unable to be read by on-site ballot tabulator.” In sworn statements provided to the attorney general’s office, numerous Maricopa election workers claimed that the printers in question experienced no problems when tested the day before the election on Nov. 7.

As instructed by Maricopa election officials, voters whose ballot wouldn’t tabulate correctly were to place their ballots in a bin called “Door 3.” Despite claims from Maricopa Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates and County Recorder Stephen Richer that the “Door 3” ballots would be tabulated at a central tabulation location after polls closed on Election Day, the county seemingly failed to adhere to state law when transporting and counting the ballots.

“Maricopa County appears to have failed to adhere to the statutory guidelines in segregating, counting, tabulating, tallying, and transporting the ‘Door 3’ ballots,” Wright wrote. “In fact, Maricopa County has admitted that[,] in some voting locations, ‘Door 3’ non-tabulated ballots were commingled with tabulated ballots at the voting location.”

“Further, we have received a sworn complaint from an election observer indicating that more than 1700 ‘Door 3’ non-tabulated ballots from one voting location were placed in black duffle bags that were intended to be used for tabulated ballots,” she added.

Also included in the letter are claims that election workers and voters had problems with “check out” procedures, wherein voters trying to “check out” of a voting location due to the ballot printer problems were “having difficulties” doing so. Many of the voters who left to cast their ballots at another voting center in the county reported having to cast a provisional ballot, as the “e-Pollbooks” system utilized by Maricopa “maintained the voter had [already] cast a ballot in the original voting location.”

The reported issues and sworn allegations raised in Wright’s letter are not the only documented concerns over Maricopa’s 2022 election misadministration. In

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