Editor’s Note: The judge rejected the request to extend voting hours.
The Republican National Committee (RNC) has joined with the Blake Masters and Kari Lake campaigns, as well as the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) and the Arizona GOP in filing an emergency motion to extend poll hours in Maricopa County and correct poll worker errors. “The RNC is joining a Republican coalition to file an emergency motion to extend poll hours in Maricopa County because voting machines in over 25% of voting locations have experienced significant issues,” said RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. “The widespread issues – in an election administered by Democrat Secretary of State Katie Hobbs – are completely unacceptable, especially as Republicans flock to the polls to vote in-person on Election Day. We have dozens of attorneys and thousands of volunteers on the ground working to solve this issue and ensure that Arizona voters have the chance to make their voices heard.”
“The AZGOP is glad to see the RNC take these proactive steps. The AZGOP has been working all day to endure that our volunteers at the polls are well trained to inform voters as to how to deal with the county’s giant mistake,” said AZGOP attorney Alex Kolodin.
In Arizona, Mark Kelly's campaign intervened to OPPOSE people who were disenfranchised today in Maricopa County, from being allowed to vote. Goes to show you that Democrats' platitudes about voting rights are often situational, at best. Hearing soon.
— Harmeet K. Dhillon (@pnjaban) November 9, 2022
Maricopa County officials report that ballot tabulators are not functioning at about 25 percent of polling places due to issues with the printers.
Long lines have been observed at polling places in Maricopa County. Additionally, individuals leaving impacted voting locations to vote elsewhere are not being checked out of the poll book, which makes voting at the other location problematic.
This is not the first time the RNC has had to legally intervene in Maricopa County due to election irregularities. In early October, the RNC sued the county for refusing to transparently share their partisan poll worker breakdown and failing to hire a sufficient number of Republican election workers.
The RNC’s lawsuits resulted in the county sharing key data and hiring additional Republican election workers.
- At least 36% of all voting centers across Maricopa County have been afflicted with pervasive and systemic malfunctions of ballot tabulation devices and printers, which has burdened voters with excessive delays and long lines.
- Upon information and belief, numerous individuals presenting to vote at some or all of these locations were unlawfully induced by poll workers to discard their ballots or otherwise forfeit their opportunity to cast a legally sufficient vote. Specifically, certain voters whose ballots could not be read by the tabulation device were erroneously informed by poll workers that they could spoil their ballot, present at a different voting location later (where, presumably, the tabulators were properly functioning), and cast a valid, regular ballot. In fact, voters who followed these instructions were, at the second voting location, either denied an opportunity to vote at all, or were required to vote a provisional ballot, which, upon information and belief, will not be tabulated.
- On information and belief, other voters were denied an opportunity to vote, and not advised of their right to vote a provisional ballot, in direct contravention of controlling law.
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