Chris Hamlett, who unsuccessfully ran for Mesa School Board in the Nov. 8 election, believed the supervisors were already determined to certify the election, and public comments during Monday’s meeting were politically charged. He said it was like a play.

“This is a war between good and evil, and you are on the side of evil,” Hamlett told county officials, imploring the crowd that if they want to fight corruption in elections, they must have God on their side.

Leslie Shepherd said she and several others in line at the polling place on Election Day were unable to get their ballots read by tabulators. She also played a recording in which she said computer programmers had proven they could introduce code into tabulation machines to change election results.

“We come to you and ask you to dig deep into your heart so that one day you will not be sent to hell,” said Shepherd, who is not a Republican but is registered as an independent. He added that yell at the supervisor.

Several commenters criticized the Board for imposing a two-minute time limit for each member of the public to speak during the meeting. This restriction is routine at county commission meetings, and similar restrictions are in place at county commissions, city councils, and school districts across Arizona. That includes state legislatures, where Republican committee chairs often impose tighter restrictions on testimony.

“This entire two-minute process is a violation of our First Amendment right to petition the government and have our grievances addressed,” said Randy Miller. “Government officials who work for us all the time around the world have no right to limit our time while giving us the need to talk about things that are gaslighting us.”

County Supervisor Jack Sellers expressed disappointment that many people who made public comments, especially those who asked pointed questions about the election, left after speaking and were unable to listen to the county’s responses. did. Arizona law does not allow elected officials to respond directly to individual members of the public, but the meeting’s agenda included a thorough review of the election after the public comment period. .

During that portion of the meeting, county election officials discussed how all the ballots were counted at the two polling locations, where there was a mix of uncounted and counted ballots. (An original tally of the entire batch of ballots will be done), etc. out and the entire batch is re-counted), and the reason for the counting process. It takes longer in Arizona. than California. County officials also said that while printer issues that caused problems with tabulation machines negatively impacted voters, no one was denied a vote.

All voters are asked to either fill out a new ballot to see if tabulators will accept it or to place the ballot in a secure box labeled “Door 3” and return it later at the county’s central tabulation center. We were given the choice of being tallied or checking out and heading to the next location. Please vote at a different voting center.

Many of those who voted on Election Day, including those who spoke at Monday’s meeting, said they did not want to put their ballots in Door 3 because they feared they would not be counted.

“Voters were afraid to put their ballots in the ballot box,” said Scott Jarrett, Maricopa County elections co-director. “Why? Because we experienced two years of false and disinformation that discredited the Maricopa County Elections Department and eroded voter confidence in our process.”

Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kerry Ward took to her Twitter account to instruct Arizona Republican voters not to drop off their ballots at Door 3. In a tweet retweeted by more than 600 accounts, including the official Arizona Republican Party account, Ward implored voters to avoid Door 3. .

Maricopa County Voters: Make sure your vote counts today! Share & RT! #ElectionIntegrity #electionday pic.twitter.com/7XUNPfiRRU

— Dr. Kelli Ward 🇺🇸 (@kelliwardaz) November 8, 2022

“Please enter your ballot into the on-site tabulation machine yourself. If your ballot does not read correctly, do not press the green button. Do not place your ballot in ‘Box 3’ or ‘Door 3.’ Please,” read the image she published just after 8 a.m. on voting day. In another tweet using the same image, Ward urged her 220,000 followers to “share & RT” her advice.

The county has been using Door 3 for voters whose ballots cannot be read by tabulators since Maricopa County began using on-site tabulators at polling places in 1996.

“This is a very common practice,” Jarrett said.

Eight of Arizona’s 15 counties do not have tabulation machines on-site on Election Day, leaving voters with the only option of placing their ballots in a secure box to be counted later.

However, the election board faced backlash from voters in the early hours of November 8 when it suggested that ballots be placed in secure boxes to be counted later.

“That’s because a very influential public told voters not to put their ballots in (the third box) and created fear and instilled fear in voters,” Jarrett said.

In addition to Ward and the AZGOP, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem encouraged voters Do not use Door 3 on Election Day and must wait in line until your vote is counted.

In response to a resident’s question about why trucks were leaving the county’s central tabulation center and headed to Lambeck Election Services after Nov. 8, the county said signatures on early ballots were scanned and available for signature by Lambec. Explained. Verify that the ballot is valid by comparing it to the voter’s previous signature. The county says the chain of custody for ballots will be maintained by monitors from both parties throughout this process.

One public commenter said his wife waited two hours and he waited an hour to vote in person on Election Day, but election officials said 114 of the county’s 223 polling locations The maximum waiting time was less than 15 minutes. At seven vote centers, wait times could range from 1 hour and 20 minutes to nearly two hours, although some centers with longer wait times had much shorter lines. The county provided an online map of voting centers and regular updates on Election Day wait times.

Most of the speakers were Maricopa County voters, and several said they worked at polling places or were poll watchers. But a man who calls himself the “ringleader of election denialists” says he’s from Colorado, and Ben Bergkam, a self-proclaimed conservative journalist from California, has refused to enter a county election office to report on the election. He said that he was refused.

Maricopa County has been a target of election fraud conspiracy theorists since 2020, when former President Donald Trump claimed the presidential election was stolen from him. Continuing election denialism among Arizona’s elected officials led to a partisan audit of the 2020 elections in Maricopa County. no evidence that the election was fraudulent.

This trend is further amplified by the inclusion of a number of election-denying candidates on the ballots for this election. Printer issues at Maricopa County voting center The fallout from Election Day raised further concerns about election administration in the county.

Some of Arizona’s most prominent pro-Trump candidates, including Lake and Finchem, who ran on the “Big Lie” that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump, are running against their Democratic opponents. Some people still haven’t conceded in elections they won by thousands of votes.

Lake and Republican Attorney General Candidates Abe Hamade I have both filed a lawsuit to Maricopa County ahead of election certification. Lake’s lawsuit sought information from the county on Election Day issues, while Hamadeh’s lawsuit challenged election results that cannot be legally challenged until certified under Arizona law.

Republican Attorney General of Arizona I sent a letter to Maricopa County. On Nov. 19, I requested answers from the county regarding Election Day issues, and the county responded. Partial response sent Sunday.

Mr. Lake, Mr. Finchem, Mr. Hamadeh and several others argued that Republican voters were being disenfranchised due to printer problems on Election Day, but the county said turnout this year was better than in previous midterm elections, especially For Republicans, he said yes.

this year’s Voter turnout in Maricopa County was 64.2%. Voter turnout in the county has exceeded 64% only three times in the past 40 years. Republican turnout in 2022 was 75.4%, higher than 2018, but Democratic turnout was 68.5%, slightly lower than 2018. Independent voter turnout also increased slightly compared to 2018, at 50% compared to 49%.