CNN
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The Maricopa County Attorney’s Office said Sunday, Election Day Printer Issues Some polling places did not prevent voters from voting legally in Arizona’s most populous counties.

Monday is the deadline for Arizona counties to certify the results of the general election, with statewide certification scheduled for Dec. 5. defeated the Republican candidateGubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and secretary of state candidate Mark Finkem continue to cast doubt on the election results. Lake and Finchem have not lost a race.

“No voter was disenfranchised because of the difficulties the county experienced with some printers,” said Thomas Liddy, Republican director of civil services at the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, in the letter. said. Liddy was responding to a request for information about what the Arizona Attorney General’s Office described as “a myriad of issues that have arisen related to his administration of the 2022 General Election in Maricopa County.” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brunovich is also a Republican.

“All voters were provided with a ballot on which they could record their votes, and all ballots cast by legal voters were counted at a Vote Center or Maricopa County Counting and Election Center,” Liddy wrote. said in a letter. Jennifer Wright, Assistant Attorney General.

Due to problems with the county’s printers on Election Day, some voters put their ballots in a secure ballot box called “Door 3” so they could be counted separately.

The letter notes that the Attorney General’s Office has suggested that the procedure may violate requirements for uniform and free elections. , Arizona must ensure uniformity in elections, but not in the sense that even unforeseen printing problems that interfere with on-site counting could invalidate the election. No, I was offered a legal option to vote.”

In another report, officials from the Maricopa County Elections Authority also opposed suggestions by several Republican candidates and state party officials that voters were disenfranchised, instead opting for voters to vote on their ballots on Election Day. accused Republican celebrities of discouraging people from mailing the

The Maricopa County Elections Authority notes in its report that using the Door 3 option has been a “decades-old practice” in the county when ballots are difficult to read with on-site tabulators.

A report from the Maricopa County Elections Authority said, “Despite this being a legal, safe and reliable voting option, many prominent and influential individuals discouraged voters from leaving their ballots at Door 3. was instructed to “As a result, some voters have refused to use this viable voting option.”

Exhibits attached to the report include Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelly Ward, who has 220,000 followers on Twitter, and Charlie, founder and president of the right-wing group Turning Point USA, who has 1.8 million followers. It showed tweets from prominent Republican figures like Kirk. Tell voters not to use the “Door 3” option to vote on Election Day.

Ward has maintained that voters have been disenfranchised. In response to a letter from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office to the Attorney General’s Office, Ward tweeted on Sunday that the county is “basically telling the AG office to hit the sand.”

“They don’t have time to deal with disenfranchised voters. These people are a disgrace,” she tweeted.

The Maricopa County Elections Office report also details why some of the Election Day ballots had printer issues. It wasn’t an ink or toner issue, it was a “fuser” issue. The report points out that the printer has three profiles for him. One for ballots, one for receipts, and one for envelopes.

The ‘media weight’ setting for ballots was set to a heavy setting as recommended, and receipts and envelopes were set to a light setting as recommended. To solve the problems that arose on Election Day, the technician set all three of his “media weight” settings to heavy settings, and the 71 voter centers that had problems had printing issues resolved. (These 71 centers represent approximately 31% of the 223 Vote Centers that will be open on Election Day.)

A total of 16,724 ballots were cast into the secure ballot box at Door 3 because the on-site tabulator could not be read, the county elections office reported.

According to a letter from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, eight Arizona counties have no polling machines at all polling places. “In Apache, Coconino, Gila, Mojave, Pima, Pinal, Santa Cruz, and Yavapai counties, all Election Day voters drop their ballots into a ballot box (much like Door 3 All of these ballots are returned to central elections headquarters to be counted (just as Door 3 ballots are taken to the Maricopa County Counting and Elections Center for counting),” said Liddy. writing.

Due to printer problems, some ballots were printed in such a way that precinct-based counters could not read them, but they were still readable by the human eye. Overall, the county attorney’s office described the size of the issue as minimal compared to the ballot. “Compared to the total number of voters who participated in the 2022 general election, less than 1% of his ballots were affected by these printer issues. It means I was still able to cast my own vote.”