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Problems with voting machines in Arizona’s Maricopa County trigger unfounded fraud claims

The issue was affecting about a quarter of voting locations, officials said. No one was being prevented from voting, and lines were short in many locations.

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Updated November 8, 2022 at 9:07 p.m. EST|Published November 8, 2022 at 2:56 p.m. EST
On Nov. 8, Maricopa County elections officials said tabulators at about 20 percent of the 223 voting locations in the county were experiencing problems. (Video: The Washington Post)
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PHOENIX — Problems with vote-counting machines at some polling locations in Maricopa County, home to more than 60 percent of Arizona’s voters, became grist for prominent right-wing voices who deny the legitimacy of the 2020 election to claim without evidence that Tuesday’s vote was also fraudulent.

At about a quarter of the county’s 223 voting locations, vote-counting machines were unable to read some of the ballots that are printed on-demand for voters, county officials said. Technicians traveled around the county Tuesday changing the printer settings. In the meantime, election officials advised voters to either wait for tabulators to come back online, go to another voting location or to drop ballots in secure slots so they could be counted at the end of the day or in the coming days at the county’s tabulation center in downtown Phoenix, said Megan Gilbertson, spokesperson for the county’s election department.