PHOENIX — Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich told 12 News he has no evidence there are attempts to disenfranchise voters and that although he is still looking into some outstanding complaints from voters, he is trusting what election officials have said about sharpies and voting.
“Do I think that based on what I’ve heard now and what I’ve seen that maybe this was a little overblown? I will at this point say that I believe what elections [officials] have said verbally and I will take them at their word," Brnovich told 12 News. "I don’t think anyone in Arizona was consciously trying to create a controversy or a conspiracy. Because at the end of the day, think about this, if indeed there was an issue with sharpies, I mean, I’m not a math whiz, that would have affected both parties equally."
This comes after multiple ballot-related complaints in Arizona emerged online on social media on Wednesday. People reported they were given Sharpie markers to fill in their ballots, which caused bleed-through, and they believed their ballots may not have been counted.
Officials including Secretary of State Katie Hobbs have ensured that Sharpie markers are in fact OK, even one of the best options for filling in a ballot in Arizona and the machine still count ballots that have bleed-through.
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The other complaint was people wondering why their "ballot status" reads as "canceled" online.
Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs explained it simply on Twitter on Wednesday.
"Voters who received an early ballot in the mail but chose to instead vote in-person will see their early ballot status as “Canceled” on their Ballot-by-Mail/Early Ballot Status update," Hobbs wrote on Twitter. "This is because the early ballot is canceled so the ballot cast-in person can be counted."
"Seeing a 'Canceled' early ballot status does not mean the in-person ballot you cast was not counted. If you voted a provisional ballot, your ballot will be counted once the county confirms your registration status and that you did not cast another ballot," she said.