County under a cloud: Maricopa's decade-long history of election issues, from 2012 to 2022

 Election Day Issues

• Numerous issues occurred at vote centers on Election Day in Maricopa County earlier this month, from election machine problems to hours-long lines, according to widespread reports.
• Election issues are not unique to the 2022 mid-term elections, as they began a decade ago
• During the 2012 presidential general election, key races went undecided for two weeks after Election Day as a result of “record numbers of provisional and early ballots” remaining uncounted after polls closed
• In the 2014 midterm election, despite a decrease in voter turnout, there were still days-long delays in counting early votes

Obama Administration

• The Obama Justice Department sent a letter to the Maricopa County Recorder's Office inquiring about the election issues, which occurred under Helen Purcell, a Republican who had held the office since winning the 1988 election
• Amid these issues, Purcell lost her 2016 reelection race for county recorder to Democrat Adrian Fontes
• Fontes then revealed his plan to change how elections were conducted the week before Election Day

Bottom Line

• After the 2018 election, the county's Board of Supervisors retook control over Election Day voting from the recorder's office, limiting Fontes' election responsibilities to overseeing voter registration and early voting.
• The current recorder, Republican Stephen Richer, defeated Fontes in the 2020 election, vowing to tighten up and depoliticize the chronic maladministration of elections in the county, but after taking office he emerged as an often acerbic critic of GOP efforts to audit the disputed 2020 election.

Election Issues

• During the 2022 midterm election, Maricopa County experienced numerous issues with election machines, from printers that print ballots to ballot scanners.
• The Arizona attorney general’s office raised concerns regarding the administration of the Nov. 8 election, prompting the county to issue a statement saying that it followed the law on Election Day and the election problems were “regrettable."
• However, the county maintained that every lawful voter was still able to cast his or her ballot.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/elections/maricopa-countys-decade-long-history-election-issues-2012-2022