Maricopa: Arizona attorney general's office opens investigation into voting irregularities

The Election Integrity Unit demands a full report before the midterm election results are certified.

The Arizona Attorney General's office opened an investigation into the handling of the midterm elections in Maricopa County, demanding a full report on the irregularities and warning that there is evidence of "statutory violations."

The letter, sent Saturday by Assistant Attorney General Jennifer Wright to the county's Civil Division Chief Prosecutor, Thomas Liddy, demands a full report on how the problems with the tabulators and printers on the voting machines were handled. Just The News reported that Wright’s office has also requested a copy of the official report of the ballots from each polling place. The assistant attorney general is demanding that the evidence be turned over by November 28, the day the county will send its final certification of the vote.

221119 Letter to Maricopa County Re 2022 General Election Administration by VozMedia on Scribd

Suspicions about votes in Maricopa County

The letter marks a new step in the dispute over election results in Arizona. In Maricopa, the state's largest county, dozens of ballot tabulators had problems due to printing issues.

Those problems delayed the announcement of a winner in the state's tight attorney general race and led Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake to challenge the victory of her opponent, Democrat Katie Hobbs, as the winner of the gubernatorial race. Lake now insists on getting to the bottom of the matter.

Now the Prosecutor's Office has discovered several irregularities and requests that they be resolved before November 28. The letter sent by the assistant attorney general mentions that the complaints of numerous voters go beyond mere speculation:

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.

Assistant Attoney General Jennifer Wright said, "Maricopa County appears to have failed to adhere to the statutory guidelines in segregating, counting, tabulating, tallying, and transporting ballots,” therefore there could be numerous legal violations related to inadequate instructions given to voters by poll workers whose ballot tabulations were delayed by the problems.