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Maricopa County found a solution to the ballot-tabulating problem. Unscanned votes will still be counted.
There were problems tabulating ballots at nearly a third of all vote centers in Maricopa County all morning on Election Day, but by the afternoon, county officials had figured out a fix. Vote-counting machines were having trouble tabulating the ballots because the timing marks on the ballot — the black lines on the sides that […]
Judge blocks Cochise County plan for full hand count of ballots
A judge ruled Monday that Cochise County cannot conduct a hand count of all ballots cast in the midterm election, saying that it is not legal in Arizona. The decision blocks, for now, the latest effort by GOP leaders to hand-count ballots, a method experts say is slower and less accurate than machine counts. Republicans […]
Navajo voters in one Arizona County see their ballots rejected more frequently. Here’s what would fix that.
On the day of the August primary election, Kee Allen Begay Jr. was at a polling place on the Navajo Nation when he overheard voters talking about how they had gone to the wrong polling place. Begay said the voters were told that they had to vote at a different location 20 or so miles […]
Drop box watchers in Arizona connected to national effort from ‘2000 Mules’ creators
The movement to try to catch illegal voting at ballot drop boxes in Arizona, which is spurring complaints and lawsuits alleging voter intimidation, is not the local grassroots effort it appears to be. The drop box watchers are part of a coordinated fast-growing national effort with thousands of volunteers who say they want to help […]
Cochise County backtracks on proposal for full hand-count of ballots in midterm election
Cochise County will not hand-count all ballots cast in the midterm election, as its officials seriously considered as recently as Monday, but will instead increase the number of ballots to be hand-counted under the usual, state-prescribed audit. The county supervisors approved a plan Monday to expand the hand-count audit, giving the impression that they would […]
Secretary of State’s Office threatens lawsuit if Cochise County conducts hand count of ballots
The Arizona Secretary of State’s Office is threatening to sue Cochise County if it moves forward with a hand count of all ballots in the midterm election. State Elections Director Kori Lorick sent a letter Wednesday to the county supervisors saying the office agrees with the Cochise County Attorney’s Office and state Legislative Council that, […]
Up to 1,000 Arizona voters were mistakenly sent ballots with only federal races. Here’s why and what’s next.
Arizona election officials are reviewing the records of 1,000 voters who may have been mistakenly sent a ballot containing only federal races. They plan to let affected voters know they received the wrong ballot and a full ballot is on the way, with state and local races included. The secretary of state’s office announced the […]
‘Read the fine print’: Small text size on Maricopa County’s massive ballots worries voter advocates
Voter advocates are warning it will be hard for Maricopa County voters to read and understand their midterm ballots, because the county is using small text sizes to accommodate an extraordinary number of election contests. The various text sizes on the county’s 20-inch-long ballots go as small as 7.5 points, well below the 10-point or […]
Hand-counting of ballots in Cochise County deemed illegal
Supervisors in Cochise County said Tuesday they are intent on voting on a proposal to hand-count all ballots cast in November’s election, despite repeated warnings from their lawyer that the plan would be illegal. Deputy Cochise County attorney Christine Roberts repeatedly told the supervisors that state law does not give them the authority to conduct […]
Hand-counting ballots would cause ‘downright chaos,’ experts say
Cochise County officials are considering hand-counting all ballots cast by the county’s 87,000 voters this election, a radical measure for a county of its size that election experts say is also problematic and unnecessary. A hand count would produce inaccurate results, confuse voters, and consume extensive time, money, and labor, said C.Jay Coles, senior policy […]
Trump allies have interviewed nearly 200 election officials to probe for weaknesses
Two of Donald Trump’s most prominent allies in his fight to overturn the 2020 election are leading a coordinated, multi-state effort to probe local election officials in battlegrounds such as Michigan, Arizona, and Texas ahead of the November election. The America Project, an organization founded by Michael Flynn, a retired three-star general and former national […]
GOP poll watcher training casts unfounded suspicion on Arizona elections
The Republican National Committee is telling potential Arizona polling place observers that there are “festering problems” in how elections are run, such as security issues with vote-counting machines and problems with voter rolls, as it trains them for the state’s upcoming primary election. The RNC training delivers the message that the “2020 election had serious […]