North Pima News

A social media political influencer is still questioning how a number of ballot tabulator machines in Maricopa County malfunctioned simultaneously in November.

“Still can’t believe 60%+ of election locations in Maricopa County had malfunctioning machines on Election Day all at the same time w/people waiting in line for hours & they have the audacity to call it a ‘free and fair election,’” Rogan O'Handley wrote in a May 14 Twitter post. “3rd world countries don’t steal it this blatantly.”

Approximately 20% of the voting locations, roughly 1 in 4, in Maricopa County experienced glitches on Election Day. This led to widespread accusations of fraud with The New York Times reporting that many said the situation would affect largely Republicans as they sought to vote in person due to trust issues with mail-in ballots. The unexpected malfunctions impacted multiple ballot tabulator machines, which raised concerns about the accuracy and fairness of the election process.

In the afternoon on Election Day, county officials reported they had resolved tabulation issues at approximately 55 of the 60 voting centers affected, identifying and successfully fixing the problem by adjusting printer settings. The malfunction had impacted a total of 17,000 ballots in the county, according to Fox 10.

Fox 10 reported that Bill Gates, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, apologized for the malfunctions and said all voters had the opportunity to cast their vote and have it counted.

“Yesterday was not a perfect election,” Gates said in the Fox 10 article. “We will learn from it and do better.”

Voters who encountered issues with the ballot machines were presented with several options, including visiting an unaffected location or submitting their ballot to a secured box to be counted later, according to NPR.

“Can this possibly be true when a vast majority of Republicans waited for today to Vote?” former President Donald Trump questioned on Truth Social, regarding the problems in Arizona, as reported by The New York Times. "Here we go again? " he said. "The people will not tolerate it!!!"