Republican Kari Lake shared a video on Twitter saying she “continues to fight” to become the next governor of Arizona, claiming voters were disenfranchised in Maricopa County. predicted that Arizona’s secretary of state, Democrat Katie Hobbs, would win the high-profile gubernatorial race.

“On Election Day, nearly half of all polling stations had problems with the counting machines and printers.” said the lake In the video on November 17th. “Dysfunctional tally machines forced voters to queue for hours to exercise their sacred right to vote.”

Reflecting former President Donald Trump’s lies about election fraud, Lake said Maricopa County election officials “failed” voters and “tens of thousands of voters in Maricopa County were disenfranchised.” Stated.

On Election Day, some Maricopa County Ballot Table The machine was unable to read the ballot due to a printing error. But Lake’s claim that these issues caused widespread voter disenfranchisement is inaccurate.

Equipment malfunctions were real and annoyed some voters. However, these voters were still given the option to vote.

Sarah Brannon, managing attorney for the voting rights division of the American Civil Liberties Union, said she was unaware of any evidence that voters were “totally disenfranchised” and “cannot vote at all.”

Brannon said the tally issue was a “disappointing failure” but praised election officials for working to fix the problem and offering alternative ways to vote.

Election officials said voters who wanted to vote in person could do so.

Some Vote Centers Had Problems with Ballot Counting Machines

In Maricopa County, voters typically send their completed ballots to a counting machine to count their ballots. An optical scanner records each vote. This is usually the last step for in-person voters.

However, on election day, some aggregators Some county vote centers have suspended some or all voting. The issue affected approximately 70 of the county’s 223 vote centers that opened that day.

At about 2 p.m. local time, Maricopa County Oversight Board Chairman Bill Gates said the problem caused by the printing error had been fixed at 17 Vote Centers, and repair work was underway at other centers. I was.

“Even with this brisk issue, no one today was unable to vote with valid ID,” Gates said. Said November 8th. He said he gave people to fill out ballots and offered alternative ways to vote if the tallyers refused to read the ballots.

• People can try sending their ballots to another tabrator or leave them alone and wait for them to vote. works correctly (sometimes waiting in long lines);

• They could mess up the ballots they were given in one place and move to another where there were no tallying issues.

• they sent the completed ballot secure slot Marked as “No. 3”, the authorities tabulate them later.

According to Gates, about 7% of all direct ballots in Maricopa County (about 17,000 votes) were affected by technical issues and ended up in the third box. November 9.

As of November 17, county officials were investigating whether the 146 provisional ballots could be tallied. Votebeat Arizona reported them Ballots were from voters who checked in with poll workers at vote centers and left without checking out.But less than 500 votes never decided a statewide race, according to Arizona’s unverified elections. result As of Nov. 21.

Maricopa County Director Bill Gates speaking at the Recorders’ Office in Phoenix on November 9, 2022. (AP)

people were given a choice on how to vote

Voters in Maricopa County were not disenfranchised, according to voting rights experts, election officials, and local judges.

“People were still able to vote, but that probably meant they didn’t vote the way they wanted,” Gates said. November 8th“I don’t think anyone has been disenfranchised because no one has turned their backs on them.”

Lake’s spokesperson Ross Trumbull said voter video testimony Lake shared on her Twitter and Instagram pages supported her claim that voters were disenfranchised on November 8. new york times Analysis shows that about 75% of voters offering these accounts said they were inconvenienced but were eventually able to vote. Most others were vague about whether or not they were able to cast the ballots that were counted.

“All voters who went to one of the affected polling places were still able to cast their ballots,” said Sophia Solis, the spokesperson for the Arizona office. Ballots that could not be counted were counted instead at a central counting site, the Maricopa County Counting and Election Center. This is “how most counties handle election day ballots,” she said.

Election officials review ballots on a screen inside the Maricopa County Registrar’s Office in Phoenix Nov. 10, 2022. (AP)

Alex Grotta, Arizona director of voting rights advocacy group All Voting Is Local, said he had not seen evidence of voters being disenfranchised, but the counting problem made it “out of best practice.” There were times when the line “exceeds the standard” appeared.

Ideally, people shouldn’t have to wait more than 30 minutes to vote, Gulotta said, and some places have to wait longer. Still, all voters in line when the polls closed were allowed to vote, he said.

news report Some voters said they had been waiting in line for hours. But long lines alone aren’t a sign that voters are being disenfranchised, said MIT political science professor Charles Stewart.

Stewart says there is some evidence that long waiting times can disenfranchise minority communities. It is difficult to argue that

Voters wait in line outside a polling place in Tempe, Arizona, Nov. 8, 2022 (AP)

Vote Center Technical Issues Maricopa County did not disproportionately affect Republican voters. Washington Post analysis This contradicts Lake and Trump’s claims.

The Republican National Committee has called for vote centers in Maricopa County to remain open for an additional three hours on Election Day.this claimed Problems with voting equipment and misdirected poll workers prevented people from voting.

The court dismissed the request for the following reasons: no evidence that voters were prevented from voting;plaintiff voluntarily dismissed The lawsuit is November 15th.

PolitiFact Staff Writer Amy Sherman and Contributing Writer Sarah Swan contributed to this report.

Related: No, Maricopa’s vote tallyers did not lead to ‘no chain of custody’ votes

Related: Long wait for results as Arizona uses mail-in ballots extensively and closes margins