Good news for everyone as apoplectic as I am that no one ever does anything about the third-world-level incompetence (and perhaps worse) plaguing the Maricopa County elections: the Arizona attorney general’s office (AGO) is conducting an inquiry into the disastrous administration of the 2022 midterm election.
On Saturday, Arizona Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Wright informed Thomas Liddy, the Civil Division Chief at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, that the AGO wanted some answers.
In an email she sent to Liddy regarding “Maricopa County’s Administration of the 2022 General Election,” Wright wrote:
The Elections Integrity Unit (“Unit”) of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office (“AGO”) has received hundreds of complaints since Election Day pertaining to issues related to the administration of the 2022 General Election in Maricopa County. These complaints go beyond pure speculation, but include first-hand witness accounts that raise concerns regarding Maricopa’s lawful compliance with Arizona election law. Furthermore, statements made by both Chairman Gates and Recorder Richer, along with information Maricopa County released through official modes of communication appear to confirm potential statutory violations of title 16.
Pursuant to the AGO’s authority under A.R.S. § 16-1021, the Unit hereby requests Maricopa formally respond to and address the following concerns that have been raised. …
The letter went on to demand answers about three major issues that compromised the ability of some Arizonans to exercise their right to vote and for their vote to be counted, as well as the county’s responsibility to ensure the integrity of the election:
- Election Day Ballot-on-Demand Printer Configuration Settings;
- Election Day “Check-out” Procedures; and
- Ballots Deposited in Door 3 and Statutorily Required Election Board Close Out Duties.
The first issue — ballot-on-demand printer configuration settings — involved numerous ballot printers that had been thoroughly tested the day before suddenly malfunctioning on Election Day.
“According to Maricopa County, at least 60 voting locations had issues related to some ballot-on-demand (BOD) printers having printer configuration settings that were non-uniform, which appeared to have resulted in ballots that were unable to be read by on-site ballot tabulators,” wrote Wright. Yet, “Based on sworn complaints submitted by election workers employed by Maricopa County, the BOD printers were tested on Monday, November 7 without any apparent problems. Many of those election workers report that despite the successful testing the night before, the tabulators began experiencing problems reading ballots printed by the BOD printers within the first thirty minutes of voting on Tuesday, November 8, 2022.”
Republicans have noted that this issue disenfranchised Election-Day voters, who were expected to vote overwhelmingly for Republican candidates. Some are calling it suspicious.
This same scene played out tens of thousands of times all across Maricopa County. How many voters were disenfranchised or simply ran out of time? If the majority of ED voters were Democrats, this would be the number 1 news story in America still today. Total joke pic.twitter.com/noY1RRQv0Q
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 14, 2022
The second major issue was the disastrous “check-out” procedure. Voters who had checked into a malfunctioning location but could not cast a ballot were supposed to be “checked out” so they could go to another location and (hopefully) vote there. Instead, poll workers provided sworn complaints to the AGO that they had no training in the procedure. And worse, when voters checked into a second location, digital records indicated that they had already voted in the first location and they were not permitted to cast a ballot. Many were allowed to cast provisional ballots — but Arizona law prohibits those from being counted, since the voter was on the record as having voted already.
The third issue concerned people whose ballots could not be tabulated on-site because the reconfigured printers had issued them the wrong ballot for the tabulators. “Due to the widespread problems in non-uniform printer configuration settings, many voters were unable to tabulate their ballots on Election Day using on-site tabulators. Instead, voters were instructed to deposit their ballot in ‘Door 3,'” noted Wright. But these ballots were then treated in a cavalier fashion, with poor regard for state law and chain-of-custody concerns:
Maricopa County appears to have failed to adhere to the statutory guidelines in segregating, counting, tabulating, tallying, and transporting the “Door 3” ballots. In fact, Maricopa County has admitted that. in some voting locations, “Door 3” non-tabulated ballots were commingled with tabulated ballots at the voting location. Further, we have received a sworn complaint from an election observer indicating that more than 1700 “Door 3” non-tabulated ballots from one voting location were placed in black duffle bags that were intended to be used for tabulated ballots.
The letter concludes by giving the county just over a week to provide full, detailed reports on how it handled the problems: “As the canvass is looming, and these issues relate to Maricopa County’s ability to lawfully certify election results – the Unit requests a response to the aforementioned issues on or before Maricopa County submits its official canvass to the Secretary of State, which must occur on or before November 28, 2022 [emphasis in the original].”
Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, who has refused to concede the election until the situation is adequately addressed, was buoyed by the news. DailyMail.com reports Lake said the AG’s inquiry “vindicated her decision to fight on, even though the Associated Press and other news organizations called the race for her opponent:”
‘The way they run elections in Maricopa County is worse than in banana republics around this world,’ [Lake] said in an exclusive interview, referring to the state’s most populous county.
‘And I’ll tell you what, I believe at the end of the day that this will be turned around and I don’t know what the solution will be but I still believe I will become governor, and we are going to restore honesty to our elections.’
Last week, after Democrat Katie Hobbs declared victory, Lake released a video letting everyone know she was digging in for the long fight. “Now I’m busy here collecting evidence and data. Rest assured I have assembled the best and brightest legal team. And we are exploring every avenue to correct the many wrongs that have been done this past week,” Lake assured her voters. “I’m doing everything in my power to right these wrongs. My resolve to fight for you is higher than ever.”
Lake currently trails Hobbs by fewer than 18,000 votes.
Related: Jaw-Dropping Allegations of Systemic Ballot Harvesting in Black Orlando Neighborhoods
Leftists love mail-in and early voting, which they claim is needed to overcome the racism that prevents Democrat voters from hieing themselves to a polling place or something. States that have added novel voting schedules and techniques to their laws tend to get bluer with every election, leading some Republicans to say it’s time for the GOP to get on board with the hip new way of voting. But early and mail-in voting must be accompanied by rigorous integrity measures, or it becomes a contest of who can bend the rules and look away from blatant cheating enough to win — skills at which Democrats will always excel.
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