Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022
Did Maricopa County experience problems with voting machines on Election Day?
On Election Day, about 20% of voting locations in Maricopa County experienced malfunctions with ballot tabulation machines, which use scanners to record votes.
Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates stated that voting machines were rejecting one out of every five ballots inserted into the tabulator the morning of Election Day. Yet, “None of this indicates any fraud or anything of that sort,” he said at a press conference.
Voters impacted by malfunctioning ballot tabulators were still able to vote by submitting their ballot in a secure dropbox, which would be counted by election officials after polls close, or by going to another location.
Maricopa County reported that some printers were not producing dark enough timing marks on the ballots and that changing the printer settings appears to resolve the issue, although the situation is still ongoing.
This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
- Votebeat Arizona Maricopa sees widespread problems with ballot tabulators. Votes will still be counted.
- Bill Gates If you’re at a polling place experiencing an issue with a tabulator, you have three options; your vote will be counted in each. 1) stay where you are and wait for tabulator to come online 2) drop your ballot in the secure slot (door 3) on tabulator 3) go to a nearby vote center
- The Arizona Republic Election Day 2022 in Arizona: Cochise County may appeal ruling on ballot hand count
- Twitter Election Day Ballot Solution Found
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Fact briefs are bite-sized, well-sourced explanations that offer clear "yes" or "no" answers to questions, confusions, and unsupported claims circulating online. They rely on publicly available data and documents, often from the original source. Fact briefs are written and published by Gigafact contributor publications.
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