A global technology outage was affecting some election systems in Arizona as of midday Friday, but state and county officials said they were working quickly to resolve the issues and expected a speedy recovery.
“We have been working throughout the night with the Department of Homeland Security to minimize any disruptions,” said JP Martin, deputy director of public affairs for the Arizona Secretary of State's office.
“We continue to monitor the situation with our county partners and are working to ensure they receive the assistance they need,” he added.
An official with the Pima County Recorder's Office said “most services are available,” but some online systems are not working. July 19 is the deadline to request a mail-in ballot, but the online request form is not working. Pima County registered voters who would like to vote by mail can call 520-724-4330 by 5 p.m. on July 19 and a mail-in ballot will be sent to them.
In Arizona, the deadline to request a mail-in ballot is Friday, but voters can also request an in-person ballot and cast their vote at a polling place through July 26 and again through Election Day, July 30. However, because of the power outage, Pima County voters who show up to their polling place on Friday to vote in person will be provided with a provisional ballot.
Posted by the Pima County Recorder's Office X Statement More details on the changes and contingency plans: “Due to a global internet outage, voting services are limited. Please note that provisional ballots will be issued until further notice.”
State and county officials have responded quickly to ensure all voting systems are quickly back online, but the global outage was caused by a glitch in an antivirus software update. Uncertain How long will it take before all systems are fully operational again? The outage is affecting airlines, banks and many other businesses.
In Maricopa County, check-in systems at some vote centers had not been working since Friday morning due to a global power outage, Adrian Borunda, a spokesperson for the Maricopa County Elections Department, said in an email to Arizona Luminaria.
“The voting center equipment will be networked to facilitate voter check-in and voting,” Borunda said.
Borunda said the department is working to replace the equipment with spare equipment.
Meanwhile, 12 voting centers in Maricopa County were open as of 11:20 a.m. Friday, and Borunda said the department was working to ensure the remaining 29 centers would be open and operational throughout the day on Friday.
Voters who come to closed vote centers in Maricopa County can still submit their early mail-in ballots. But unlike in Pima County, voters cannot cast their ballots at those locations, Borunda said. The department encouraged voters to check where their ballots are kept. Location Map Find an open Vote Center near you.
“I want to be clear that we have contingency plans in place. Currently, there are 12 voting centers where Maricopa County voters can cast their ballots, and we are working to open more centers during the day,” Borunda said. “We encourage voters to use the map on our website to find centers that are open. We ask for voters' patience as we work to address this global technology outage.”
Unlike Pima County, the department's online system for requesting mail-in ballots from Maricopa County was not affected by the outage, Borunda said. People who haven't received or requested their ballots can still use the system. Election Commission website To do so on Friday, the department Posted in X.
Martin said Arizona's voter registration database was not affected by the outage as of noon on July 19. The counting system was air-gapped, meaning it's not connected to the internet, so it wasn't affected, he said.
“What they're doing is best practices,” Martin said of the efforts in Pima and Maricopa counties.
“Plans are in place for events like this,” Pima County Recorder Gabriela Cazares Kelly said in a statement Friday. “Our well-organized team has launched a coordinated effort to ensure voters can access our services with little to no disruption.”
The technical outage came amid simmering distrust over the integrity of the election in the state and across the country, with some taking to social media on Friday to criticize Arizona election officials as voters drew up contingency plans despite the global outages.
Over the past few years, Arizona has been at the center of efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to discredit the US voting system. In 2020, conservatives who alleged fraud and sought to overturn a legitimate election result called for an audit and manual count of the presidential vote.
multiple Audits, and more Audit of Auditshave Consistently displayed that there was There is no systematic or widespread fraud in ArizonaEven staunch Republican supporters reject plausible claims of wrongdoing. Post-2022 Election Poll The survey also found that a majority of Arizonans trust the survey's findings.
Martin said he expects the only people who will have any impact on the integrity of this election will be those who believe the system was actually compromised.
“I expect all of this will be fixed as soon as possible,” he said, adding that voting was not affected by the outage at any point.
