A recent release of emails from the Maricopa County GOP has led to allegations that Maricopa County Election officials were made aware of the potential for printing and supply issues during the botched 2022 statewide elections.
The trove of emails obtained by EZAZ, a voters’ advocacy group for Strong Communities Action, show the Maricopa County GOP shared growing concerns with then-Recorder Stephen Richer and Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Election Manager Scott Jarrett about the County’s election infrastructure and ability to handle Election Day voting.
According to a thread now going viral on X.com, “Remember in 2022 when the nearly 70% of voting centers in Maricopa County failed on Election Day causing massive, long lines and voter disenfranchisement resulting in @KariLake and @AbrahamHamadeh barely losing? Maricopa County knew in advance their Election Day plan was set up for failure, and THEY LET IT FAIL!”
Elon Musk, the owner of X.com and the de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency boosted the post making it national news overnight.
Thank you @elonmusk for bringing attention to this vital matter!
Unfortunately, Chairman @ThomasGalvin is now blocking our new Recorder @azjustinheap from having access to the IT staff and responsibilities assigned to him in AZ law to secure and run our elections!
Instead, the… pic.twitter.com/HqPfF8WfSj
— Merissa Hamilton ⛽ (@merissahamilton) February 25, 2025
In the posts following her initial tweet, Hamilton shared images of several emails from then-Chairwoman of the Maricopa County Republican Committee Mickie Niland to Richer and Jarrett saying, “I remember hearing from Scott (Jarrett) at some point after the primary that there was a problem during the primary with some tabulators not reading correctly due to low ink. How long does it take you to get paper or ink to them if they run out? Is there a process for the voting locations to report when they are half out of paper? How far are the restocking trucks from the voting centers? Are you using the length of the lines to help you determine when more supplies are brought to the centers?“ She also asked if there was any way she could help.
Jarrett responded, “We’ve been monitoring turnout and are prepared,” adding that there was plenty of ballot paper and normal paper to print control slips as well as “sufficient toner and printer drums.”
Hamilton explained, “Several days ahead of Election Day, the Maricopa County GOP leadership warned Maricopa County that their Election Day plan would fail and disenfranchise voters. The Maricopa County BOS Election Director Scott Jarrett insisted everything would be fine saying he was ‘confident.’”
Niland, representing the Maricopa County GOP, even followed up with an email warning, “Trust is low and voting in person is the topic everyone wants to discuss with us. To us if you are basing your decisions off of history, we think things are different now.” Niland added, “Please consider this email the official raising of that flag.”
According to an investigation of the 2022 Maricopa County Election, former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor found that “many of the Oki B432 printers were not capable of reliably printing 20-inch ballots on 100-pound paper under election-day conditions.”
McGregor added, “The combined effect of the heavy paper, longer ballot, and intermittent burst of print demand pushed the printers to perform at the very edge of or past their capability so that any decrease in fuser performance in an individual printer could result in problems.”
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