Arizona’s Maricopa County is reporting issues with voting machines hours after the polls opened on Election Day.
As of 9 a.m., one-in-five ballots were not successfully going through voting tabulators and were being set aside to be counted separately, according to Nicole Grigg, a local reporter for ABC 15.
ELECTION DAY: 1 in 5 ballots are not going through voting tabulators right now in some polling centers in Maricopa County, AZ.
These ballots not going through will be set aside to be counted separately. There is a secure process set in place that happens for issues like this
— Nicole Grigg (@NicoleSGrigg) November 8, 2022
A technician said they are working on the issue, but also stated that as many as two-in-five (40 percent) ballots were not being counted. Per state election protocols, those ballots will be manually reviewed by a bipartisan team to ensure the votes on each individual ballot are properly tallied.
A representative from the Secretary of State’s office told Timcast that roughly 20 voting centers in Phoenix are experiencing technical issues with machines.
The voting locations, which are not running electronic voting software, all use paper ballots, which are fed into electronic tabulation machines once the voter has completed their ballot.
The Secretary of State’s office told Timcast that the tabulation machines were all tested recently and that they are unsure why they are not functioning properly.
Around 9:45 a.m., a poll worker at a separate location confirmed on video that none of their machines had been working for at least a half hour. She stated that ballots from her polling location will also be tabulated manually by a bipartisan team.
Poll worker in Maricopa County confirms "nothing's working" for the last half hour. Explains misread ballots will get counted downtown tonight. pic.twitter.com/DO6BxhV7Vq
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 8, 2022
The cities of Anthem (located roughly 30 miles north of downtown Phoenix) and Wickenburg (roughly 60 miles northwest of Phoenix) have reported issues all morning with machines not functioning.
Early Tuesday morning in Anthem, a poll worker told a long line of waiting voters that 25 percent of the ballots were being misread by one tabulator and the other tabulator wasn’t working at all.
Long lines in Anthem, Arizona with Poll Workers explaining that the @maricopacounty machines are not working.
Do not get out of line! pic.twitter.com/lInh8KnTz3
— Tyler Bowyer 🇺🇸 (@tylerbowyer) November 8, 2022
In Wickenburg, a poll worker asked a voter who could not have his ballot counted to stop recording video on his cell phone.
BREAKING: Now issues reported with machines in Wickenburg, AZ, northwest Maricopa.
Worker tells the voter to stop filming pic.twitter.com/ACFiivw3vn
— Hold the Line Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 8, 2022
Timcast spoke with a poll worker at a location in central Phoenix who said that his location was not experiencing issues. He also provided assurance that all ballots are secured and confirmed that once ballots go through the optical scanner, they remain in a locked bin.
The only person with a key to the bin is the on-site supervisor, who remains with the bins. The scanner provides a paper receipt matching the ballot, which is used during vote counting to authenticate each ballot.
