Republicans Lament Arizona’s Ballot Printer Error

Charlie Kirk, an influential right-wing activist and close friend of the Trump family, appeared in the early hours of Tuesday morning. shared A video of a poll worker in conservative Anthem, Arizona, announcing to a line of waiting voters that one of the polling place’s two tabulators was broken. The other successfully scanned completed ballots only 75%.

“It could be a printer issue, or it could be the tabulator itself,” the Maricopa County poll worker said before adding that voters experiencing difficulty could simply drop off their ballot in a box attached to the tabulator, labeled “Box Three,” to be counted later at a tabulation center — the method used by most Arizona counties.

The tabulation issues were affecting about 20% of polling locations, the county’s Bill Gates (R), Chair of the Board of Supervisors said In a social media video, you will emphasize that If they are experiencing problems, voters can always go to another polling location. (Voters in Arizona may vote in Multiple locations in a county rather than being bound to a neighborhood-specific polling location.)

Within a few hoursThe county had identified apologized for The issue: Printer settings. “It appears some of the printers were not producing dark enough timing marks on the ballots,” a press release read. County Recorder Stephen Richer (R) assured voters that “every legal vote will be tabulated,” regardless of the machine errors.

But it was too late. Republican politicians had already primed voters to expect under-handed tactics from Maricopa County, a Democratic stronghold home to more than half of Arizona’s population and also the target of the conspiracy theory-fueled “Audit” in 2021 that Republicans used to push false voter fraud claims. They knew exactly what was. Really Continue reading.

Kirk shared a video showing angry people in line. Some began reciting GOP talking points about ballot tabulators: “You need to get rid of the machines!” someone says off camera. “I don’t trust it to go in the box, the box may never make it down there! That happens all the time,” another woman said before leaving the line.

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Before long, “cheating” was trending on Twitter, and a popular pro-Donald Trump forum had pinned a post on “Box 3” to the top of its page, NBC News reported.

Around the web, commenters said the problems were “by design” and evidence that “Democrats are cheating again,” according to the Election Integrity Partnership, which tracks election related misinformation and disinformation.

Republican politicians in all 50 states, including Arizona, have raised the possibility of Rejecting election results if they are lost — tapping into widespread GOP beliefs of systematic election fraud — and only accepting them if they win.

The Arizona GOP was faced with a bigger problem on Tuesday: How can they incorporate the tabulation issues into their existing false claims of widespread election theft without discouraging voters enough to make them forget to vote? The answer is to demolish Maricopa County but encourage voters to keep going with the process.

“There’s a lot of bad things going on. … They want to delay you out of voting,” Trump intoned ominously on Truth Social, urging Maricopa County voters to stay in line.

“Go overwhelm the BS,” Donald Trump Jr., his son, wrote on Twitter. “If you absolutely have to come back later, but cast your vote at all costs!!!”

Mark Finchem, the Arizona GOP secretary of state candidate who pushed the legally impossible proposal to “decertify” the 2020 election results, also weighed in on Twitter. “Why is it always Maricopa?” tweeted Finchem. Later, he tweeted at a congressional hopeful who said, “this will be the last illegally ran election in AZ!” because Finchem would bring “competence” to the secretary of state’s office.

“Democrats are hoping you will get discouraged and go home,” Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters wroteafter wondering whether the problems were “incompetence or something worse.”

Two others — state GOP chair Kelli Ward and Kari Lake, the GOP candidate for governor — claimed that the problem disproportionately affected conservative areas. There was no clear evidence supporting those claims, and neither Lake’s campaign nor the Arizona GOP responded to HuffPost’s questions.

“PSA: Hey, Maricopa County voters! Vote in a stronghold of Democrat voters. The machines and ballots seem to be fine there,” Ward wrote.

In “the heart of liberal Phoenix,” Lake said, “they’ve had zero problems with their machines today.”

However, signs were emerging that Republicans were altering their strategy to adapt the machine issues as the day went on. In a Tuesday morning flier, Ward urged voters, “do not put your ballot in ‘box 3’ or ‘door 3.’” A few hours later, Finchem shared a graphic from the Lake campaign advising supporters to use the boxes “as a last resort.”

The national Republican Party filed a lawsuit in Maricopa County on Tuesday to extend polling hours to 10 p.m. and to declare that all voters who are caught up in the confusion have the right to cast provisional votes.

This article was originally published on HuffPost. It has since been updated.

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