Attorneys for President Donald J. Trump’s reelection campaign will be able to question Maricopa County elections officials under oath Thursday about concerns that poll workers may have inadvertently caused some ballots cast on Election Day to go uncounted in the race for president.
The evidentiary hearing was ordered Monday by Judge Daniel Kiley of the Maricopa County Superior Court in an elections complaint filed Saturday by Trump’s political committee, the Republican National Committee, and the Arizona Republican Party, who believe “potentially thousands of voters across Maricopa County” may have had some votes disqualified in certain races.
The lawsuit names Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes as defendants, along with Maricopa County’s board of supervisors. Riley will also allow attorneys for the Arizona Democratic Party to argue against the voting verification sought by the Trump campaign and Republican groups.
According to the lawsuit, poll workers may have incorrectly handled errors reported by the electronic tabulation machines used throughout the county. Those errors primarily dealt with overvotes, which occur when a voter fills in more ovals in a specific contest than allowed.
For instance, only one oval can be filled in for the Presidential Electors; if the tabulation machine reads more than one oval it will flag the ballot.
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Court records show a Maricopa County Elections Department employee estimated as many as 80 percent of Election Day voters at one voting center had problems with the tabulation machines. Despite that, county officials say they identified only 180 overvote ballots cast on Nov. 3 in the race for president.
Normally a ballot with any overvote would be segregated for manual review to discern the voter’s intent so the vote can be counted. But attorneys for the Trump-Republican plaintiffs contend that procedure may not have been followed correctly.
According to Kory Langhofer and Thomas Basile, poll workers may have either directly or indirectly cancelled out the overvote error message, thus causing the machines to simply ignore any overvoted race with no further review.
“Upon information and belief, the adjudication and tabulation of these ballots will prove determinative of the outcome of the election for President of the United States in Arizona and/or other contested offices in Maricopa County,” the lawsuit states.
Although the lawsuit does not focus on why tabulation machines may have had difficulty reading some ballots, Arizona Attorney Mark Brnovich reported last week that his office received hundreds of complaints about ink bleed-through due to the type of pen provided by elections officials.
Last week Brnovich’s office recommended that Maricopa County officials expand the sample size when they undertake their statutory manual hand count.
“Because of widespread concern raised about the ballot marking procedure in Maricopa County election day voting centers, we suggest Maricopa County consider expanding the hand count audit to five percent of the voting center locations,” AGO Chief Deputy Joseph Kanefield wrote to Clint Hickman, chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
Kanefield’s Nov. 4 letter noted that while state officials had no proof that the tabulation machines did not work properly, “an expanded hand count may help alleviate concern and provide public confidence in the integrity of the vote tabulation process.”
The judge’s decision to allow the Arizona Democratic Party to intervene against a voter integrity challenge raised some eyebrows, especially after the party issued a statement Saturday claiming election results this year “truly transcend party politics,” in the words of chairwoman Felecia Rotellini.
“If the Democrats are so confident, then why would they care about an investigation?” Walt Blackman (LD6) said Monday. “Transparency is key and voters deserve to feel confident with the process.”
And for conservative political consultant Constantin Querard, the position taken by state Democrats against ensuring what he called a legitimate vote count smacks of hypocrisy.
“After four years of trying to convince the world that Russia had somehow manipulated the voting process -up to and including warnings just a few weeks ago- Democrats across the country suddenly oppose any attempts to ensure an accurate count of the ballots?” Querard noted. “Just more proof that the Russia hoax never meant anything to Democrats except a chance to try to paint President Trump as illegitimate.”
