Maricopa Poll Worker Says Over 500 Voters Disenfranchised at Just One Location

At a Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in Arizona special meeting on Monday, a poll worker testified that hundreds of citizens in the county were disenfranchised in the midterm elections. 

“Ladies and gentlemen of the Board of Supervisors, I was a poll worker. And what I will say that I’ve seen is voters this cycle have in fact been disenfranchised,” the poll worker said, “Because we as poll workers were not taught how to check out voters at our poll centers. And then at my poll center, where we literally had at 7 pm on Election Day 675 people waiting in line. Out of 675, do you know how many came in? 150.” 

Charlie Kirk wrote on Twitter, “A Maricopa County poll worker just testified at the Board of Supervisors hearing that at 7pm there were still 675 people waiting in line when the polls closed. Only 150 people ended up voting. 525 voters were disenfranchised at one polling place! DO NOT CERTIFY”

Arizona GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake filed a lawsuit last week against Maricopa County, alleging that the county broke elections laws during November’s midterms, and demanding that they provide records related to these Election Day failings.

The lawsuit stated that Maricopa County experienced printer and tabulation issues. These issues began early on Election Day, and the filing alleges that at least 118 polling centers, or 53 percent of the 223 total centers, were affected by these issues.

Since the early morning hours on Election Day, voters experienced issues with Maricopa County’s tabulator machines, with one polling worker revealing that around 25 percent of ballots were being rejected. 

Further, it stated that poll workers attempted to reach the county hotline, but were not able to reach a tech person in a timely fashion. “Even when technical support was reached, poll workers were told that they did not know how to fix the problem.”

In response to the issues, poll workers in many cases told voters to go to a different location, but “many voters left without voting.”