Comment PHOENIX – Polling locations that experienced problems on Election Day in Maricopa County, home to more than half of Arizona’s voters, are overwhelmingly non-Republican, according to a Washington Post analysis. The finding undermines the claims of some Republicans — notably Cary Lake, the GOP gubernatorial nominee and former President Donald Trump — said GOP precincts in the county were disproportionately affected by the problems, which included an accident with printers. Republicans, however, argue that their constituents were more likely to be affected, given their tendency to vote on Election Day rather than mail in their ballots. The claims come as Lake continues to trail her rival, Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, and as the number of ballots remaining to be counted dwindles. Beginning early Tuesday, printers at 70 of the county’s 223 polling places produced ballots with ink that was too light to be read by vote-counting machines, causing the ballots to be rejected. That forced voters to wait in line, travel to another location or deposit their ballots in secure boxes that were transported to downtown Phoenix and counted there. County officials say no one was disenfranchised. The Post Office identified the areas of affected polling places using data provided by Maricopa County election officials and then reviewed the breakdown of voter registrations in each area using data from L2, an election data provider. The analysis found that the share of registered Republicans in the affected districts, about 37 percent, is essentially the same as the share of registered Republicans countywide, which is 35 percent. Throughout the week, prominent Republicans suggested without evidence that the printer problem only affected Republican districts. Lake, speaking to reporters after voting with her family at a downtown location, said: “There’s a reason we decided to switch locations — we were going to go to a pretty Republican area.” Instead, he said, “We drove into the heart of liberal Phoenix to vote because we wanted to make sure we had good machines.” “And guess what?” she added. “They had zero problems with their engines today. Not a single machine is spitting out a ballot here today. Not one, in a very liberal area. So we were right to come to vote in a very liberal area.” In fact, there were issues in locations in heavily Democratic-leaning districts, according to The Post’s analysis. They included two elementary schools in east Phoenix and a health center in south Phoenix — all localities where Democrats outnumber Republicans by about 40 percentage points. In Mountain Park Health Center in south Phoenix, which was among the precincts that experienced problems with printers, there were nearly three times as many votes for Lake’s Democratic opponent, Hobbs, as for the Republican candidate, according to results released by the county. . A spokesman for the lake campaign did not respond to a request for comment. Lake’s claims were reinforced over the weekend by Trump, who wrote on Truth Social, the social media site created by the former president and his allies, that “even Lake Kari was moved to a Lib Dem area to vote”. The former president used that claim to push a baseless allegation that Maricopa County officials “stole” the election from GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters. Masters on Friday was projected to lose his race to incumbent Democrat Mark Kelly. “Well, in Maricopa County they’re doing it again. … but only in Republican districts,” wrote Trump, who made the county the target of his false allegations of voter fraud in 2020. He concluded, “Do the elections again!” Masters hinted at a similar demand in an appearance Friday on Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show before his match was called by The Associated Press. “I think the most honest thing at this point would be for Maricopa County to wipe the slate clean, just take all the ballots and do a recount,” he said. Masters claimed the county had “tampered” with ballots on two occasions, but offered no basis for that claim. A campaign spokesman did not respond to a request for the evidence on which his claims are based. A spokeswoman for the county’s elections department said poll workers at two locations had mixed up two batches of ballots, but that “This has happened in the past and we have redundancies that help us ensure each legal vote is counted only once.” Those dismissals, which include checking total ballots against check-ins at polling places, are being done “with political party observers present,” spokeswoman Megan Gilbertson added. In a statement posted Saturday on Twitter, Masters did not advance allegations of fraud but said he would not concede until all the votes were counted. Maricopa County officials have stressed in recent days that the glitches did not cause ballots to be misread or prevent anyone from voting. They say they are working up to 18 hours a day to process a record number of ballots cast on Election Day — and have said for weeks that sorting could take up to 12 days. “I will defend my state”, Bill Gates, the Republican chairman of the county Board of Supervisors told reporters Friday afternoon. “We do things the right way.” Arizona Republican Party leaders argue that their constituents were disproportionately affected by the glitches because of their tendency to vote on Election Day. “It was no secret that Republicans intended to vote on Election Day,” the state party said in a statement issued Sunday. But The Post’s analysis found that the share of Republican voters on Election Day in precincts with printer problems was about the same as the share in precincts across the county, bolstering the county’s argument that people in the affected precincts wanted to vote on Tuesday were not prevented from doing so. . Attorneys for the party asked a judge Tuesday night to require county officials to extend voting hours by three hours, citing mechanical problems. But about five minutes before the polls closed, the judge denied the request, finding that Republicans could not show that no voter was allowed to cast a ballot. In Maricopa, voters can vote at any polling place, regardless of where they live. It’s different from some systems that require people to vote in or near designated locations their neighborhoods. Voters who live in the suburbs and drive to downtown Phoenix for work, for example, can vote either close to home, downtown, or at schools, churches, or any of the 223 polling places set up across the state. huge county. Traditionally, people tend to vote in areas close to their homes or in locations that are part of their daily lives, said University of Florida political scientist Michael MacDonald. “Voting centers are conveniently located, they’re part of your day, they can be on your route for all your tasks,” he said. Broner reported from Washington. Jon Swaine and Reis Thebault contributed to this report.
