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Maricopa County certifies election results, pushes back against disenfranchisement claims

On Monday the results of November's midterm election were unanimously certified by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.

MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. — More than four hours after a meeting began on Monday, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors unanimously certified the 2022 election results.

The hearing included a public comment period. Speakers stepped up to the microphone claiming massive disenfranchisement and fraud, while other speakers called members of the board traitors and liars.

Members of the public alleged voter disenfranchisement and election issues that they said should cause the election to be redone.

After the public comment period ended, most of the speakers left. Refusing to listen to the county presentation, which went over some of the claims.

WERE 1,000's OF VOTERS DISENFRANCHISED?

The common refrain from speakers was that thousands of voters were disenfranchised on Election Day. They point to issues with printers at some voting centers that caused tabulation machines to have problems counting the results.

The county said the data does not support that. Turnout did not see an unusual drop-off in Maricopa County. In fact, turnout was proportionally higher in Maricopa than in other counties.

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While printer issues did cause some tabulation machines trouble, the issues were fixed on election day. That morning, election officials said people could drop their ballot in "door 3." Door 3 would allow the ballots to be counted later at the main tabulation center.

“Every voter had that opportunity to put their vote in that ballot box.” Scott Jarrett, Co-Director of elections, said.

The county said 16,724 ballots were put in "door 3." According to Maricopa county, every single one of those ballots was counted.

Door 3, is essentially the same process most other Arizona counties use to count their votes, as they do not have onsite tabulators at voting centers. 

"Because Maricopa county recognizes there can be issues with printers, there can be issues with tabulation machines. That is commonplace in elections throughout the country, and we need the redundancy to offer to voters.”

The county said while some voting centers did see long lines leading to hour-long waits, 85% of centers never saw a wait of more than 45 minutes.

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