Maricopa County handles complaints while certifying elections

This year’s voter turnout was the second highest in Maricopa County’s history for a midterm election in the past 40 years.

State of the art: Scott Jarrett, county’s director of Election Day & Emergency Voting, informed the Board of Supervisors during Monday’s presentation at Monday’s canvass meeting, that turnout was 64.2%.

• The 2018 midterm election saw 64.5% of registered voters cast ballots, which was the highest turnout since at least 1982.
• Jarrett stated that 60% of the state’s population was absent.

Driving the news: After a lengthy meeting that saw a lot of angry comments from the public, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors approved the canvass.

• Some people have criticized the county because of the printer problems that prevented some voting centers from accepting ballots.
• Others believed conspiracy theories about the election’s riggedness, demanded a fresh vote, and condemned Stephen Richer and the county Recorder in harsh terms.
• Bill Gates, the Board chair, threatened to remove members of the meeting room due to outbursts on multiple occasions.

Between the lines: Jarrett addressed some issues and concerns raised by speakers during the public comments period. These included printer problems, wait time, long counting processes, federal certification of the tabulation machine, and lengthy counting.

Printers: Jarrett and Gates stressed that all 16,724 ballots that were not read by the tabulators due to printer issues were eventually counted.

Wait times: Jarrett stated that the wait times at voting centers were three to six minutes on average, and at 114 locations, it was less than 15 minutes.

• 16 waited for more than an hour, while 18 waited between 46-60 mins.

Ballot counting Jarrett stated that the 13-day average county time to count ballots was the same as the 2006 average. Jarrett also noted that there had been widespread criticism about the length of the process.

• In the past, it took 15-17 days. Before that, counties had to give voters five days after an election to correct the situation if election workers couldn’t verify their identities by signing early ballot envelopes.

Meanwhile: The Cochise County Board of Supervisors declined to certify its canvass. It scheduled another meeting for Friday. This time, the board wants to hear from the Secretary-of-State’s Office about accreditation of the tabulation machines that the county uses.

• After weeks of drama over the supervisors’ attempt at hand-counting all ballots, which was ruled illegal by a court, the decision was made.
• Cochise is one of 15 Arizona counties that has failed to certify its results in time.
• Separately, Monday was the day that the Secretary of State’s Office sued the county to force certification.