Arizona Election Day Problems Far Wider Than Maricopa County Admits: Report

A report compiled by 11 RNC lawyers who witnessed widespread issues in Arizona on Election Day 2022 reveals that Maricopa County had far more problems than they are reporting.

Mark Sonnenklar, an attorney for the Republican National Committee Integrity program in Arizona, and 10 other ‘roving’ RNC attorneys reported observing problems ranging from tabulators rejecting ballots to hours-long lines for voting, Just the News reports.

The 11 attorneys visited 115 out of the 223 vote centers in Maricopa County on Election Day and found that 72 of them (or 62.61%) “had material problems with the tabulators not being able to tabulate ballots,” Sonnenklar reported, “causing voters to either deposit their ballots into box 3, spoil their ballots and re-vote, or get frustrated and leave the vote center without voting.”

Box 3 — also called “Door 3” or “Slot 3” — is a separate box on the tabulators into which ballots not counted by the machines were placed for later tabulation. Maricopa County, however, has admitted that “in some voting locations, ‘Door 3’ non-tabulated ballots were commingled with tabulated ballots,” according to a letter from the Arizona attorney general’s office to the county. -Just the News

“In many vote centers, the tabulators rejected the initial insertion of a ballot almost 100% of the time, although the tabulators might still accept that ballot on the second, third, fourth, fifth, or sixth attempt to insert the ballot,” reads the report. “However, many ballots were not able to be tabulated by the tabulators at all, no matter how many times the voter inserted the ballot.”

According to Sonnenklar, the reports “directly contradict the statements of County election officials that (1) printer/tabulator issues were limited to only 70 of the 223 vote centers, (2) the printer/tabulator problems were resolved as of 3:00 p.m., and (3) the printer/tabulator issues were insignificant in the entire scheme of the election.”

Meanwhile, 51% of voting centers had “significant lines,” with many voters waiting multiple hours before receiving a ballot.

“[B]ecause Republican voters significantly outnumbered Democrat voters in the County on election day, such voter suppression would necessarily impact the vote tallies for Republican candidates much more than the vote tallies for Democrat candidates,” Sonnenklar wrote.

A letter from Arizona Assistant AG Jennifer Wright to the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office notes that the department had “received hundreds of complaints,” including “first-hand witness accounts.”

According to the letter, some of the information is “[b]ased on sworn complaints submitted by election workers employed by Maricopa County” and “the plethora of reports from election workers, poll observers, and voters.”

The letter gave the county until Nov. 28, the day counties are required to certify their elections, to respond. -Just the News

Of note, Maricopa, Cochise and Mohave counties have all decided to delay the certification of their elections until the Nov. 28 deadline due to the irregularities in Maricopa.