Due to mismanagement by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and their Elections Department, approximately 17,000 ballots were unable to be counted on Election Day. They are being processed today instead and are expected to provide another boost for the Republican Party’s statewide candidates.
Normally, Election Day ballots are counted as they are cast, and reported in the hours shortly after the polls close, however these 17,000 ballots were not counted due to the fact that the tabulators at polling sites could not read them. Voters with the problematic ballots were forced to place them in a separate box on the tabulators on the promise that they would eventually be counted.
A similar issue arose during the 2020 General Election and came to be known as “Sharpiegate.”
This avoidable 2022 fiasco impacted 60 or so of Maricopa County’s 223 voting centers.
It took County IT officials several hours to figure out what the problem was, causing long lines, a rash of negative media and social media attention, and discouraging voters who often walked away without voting, or left in search of a site that had properly functioning equipment.
“Finally it is apparent to even the most casual observer that the failures of electronic voting have widespread impact,” AZGOP attorney Alex Kolodin told the Arizona Daily Independent. “17,000 votes could have made a meaningful difference in election night reporting on the state of Arizona’s close races. Fortunately, because of the litigation our client, the AZGOP and the RNC did jointly, trusted Republican party volunteers will be in the room to help make sure the process of counting these votes is performed according to law.”
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