Maricopa Scandal: New Election Day Irregularities Discovered

A new report warns that problems during Election Day in Maricopa went far beyond what has been reported so far. As detailed, the failures of electoral machines occurred in many more polling centers than indicated and the problems caused by this incidence were not solved as soon as reported, which caused a "voter suppression" due to long waiting hours.

The report, which has already been sent to the Arizona Attorney General's Office, was conducted by 11 traveling attorneys from the Republican National Committee's election integrity program and is signed by Mark Sonnenklar. From the NRC they have denounced that all this "would impact heavily on the vote count of the Republican candidates and much more than that of the Democratic candidates."

Tabulated and untabulated mixed ballots

The information provided by the county election officials indicated that the incidents with the election machines were limited to 70 polling stations. Sonneklar stated in his report that he and his colleagues visited 115 out of 223 polling stations county, and detected problems in 72 of those 115. That is to say that 62.61% of the polling centers "had material problems with the tabulators not being able to tabulate ballots, causing voters to either deposit their ballots into box 3, spoil their ballots and vote again, or get frustrated and leave the voting center without voting," reports Just The News.

Box 3 -or "Door 3" or "Slot 3"- is a separate section of tabulators in which ballots that have not passed through the machines are deposited for later tabulation. Maricopa election officials admitted that "at some polling places, untabulated 'Gate 3' ballots were mixed with tabulated ballots," as reflected in the letter from the state attorney general's office.

Ballots spoiled during hours of waiting

Sonneklar reported that "in many voting 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. However, many ballots were not able to be tabulated by the tabulators at all, no matter how many times the voter inserted the ballot."

They also found "significant queues in 59 of the 115 voting centers" (51.30%) visited. They reported that many of the people who came to cast their vote had to wait between one and two hours before getting their ballot. Because of problems with printers and tabulators, a significant number of voters spoiled the failed ballots and tried to vote again with other ballots, often times with the same problems, causing the process to drag on.

Republicans, most affected

This situation has direct political consequences: "Given that Republican voters significantly outnumbered Democratic voters in the county on Election Day, this voter suppression would unfavorably affect Republican candidates' vote counts much more than Democratic candidates'," Sonnenklar summised.

The Sonnenklar report "directly contradicts 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 overall scheme of the election."

Two states delay certification of their ballots

Amid the chaos in Maricopa, two other counties announced they are delaying until Nov. 28 the certification of their canvasses. They are Cochise and Mohave. In the case of the former, it was due to a protest denouncing that the electoral machines were not certified. Although state Elections Director Kori Loch indicated that it was "an administrative problem" with the certification, since they passed the pre-election tests, county voting officials ratified by ballot to delay the certifications. Mohave, for its part, announced that it was postponing certification as a "show of solidarity" with what happened in Maricopa.