phoenix – A retired Arizona Supreme Court justice said in a report released Monday that problems with ballot printers that disrupted queues at several polling places in the Phoenix area last year were not malicious acts. I concluded that the paper change was the culprit.

county officials used longer ballots on thicker paper than before conspiracy theory But it pushed the printer to its limits, writes former judge Ruth McGregor.

She added that pre-election testing may not have detected the problem because the test didn’t adequately mimic the stress printers experience on election day.

“What we learned in interviews and document reviews gave no clear indication that problems should have been expected,” McGregor wrote.

McGregor’s findings, in addressing concerns spread by election naysayers, involve changes with unintended consequences that create even more skepticism among voters who tend to be skeptical of election procedures. It illustrates the challenges faced by electoral authorities.

Clint Hickman, Republican chairman of the county board of oversight, said the board would “start with some equipment replacements and then make changes to best serve voters.”

Republican Party Kali LakeWHO lost the gubernatorial election Along with GOP candidates for Attorney General and Secretary of State, they point to printer problems as the reason for their loss. Lake’s campaign Twitter account called McGregor’s report a “farce.”

McGregor’s team printed and counted 9,100 ballots and concluded that the problem stemmed from a part called the fuser in the Oki B432 printer, one of two models used at the vote center. .

In some printers, the fuser could not consistently maintain the proper temperature to fuse the toner to the paper, making it impossible for electoral-based tabulators to read ballots. On election day, at county election headquarters in downtown Phoenix, thousands of ballots from problematic printers were counted by more sophisticated scanners. Officials said every eligible voter had a chance to vote and all legal votes were counted.

McGregor, who was appointed to the state superior court by former Republican Gov. Jane Hull, said the problem had become more pronounced because of two changes made for the 2022 general election.

Ballot length increased from 19 inches to 20 inches to accommodate over 70 contests. The thickness of the paper was also increased after some voters in 2020 complained that the Sharpie-branded markers used at polling stations caused ink to bleed from one side of the paper to the other. .While the issue doesn’t affect vote numbers, it claims it’s evidence of widespread fraud among the former president’s supporters. donald trumpnarrowly lost in Arizona that year.

In McGregor’s test, the thicker the paper, the higher the failure rate, and adding an extra inch to the length of the ballot compounded the problem.

McGregor suggested some potential fixes for future elections, such as ditching Oki printers or testing more aggressively to find problem printers. She said both the thicker paper and district-based counters increased the incidence of problems.About half of Arizona’s counties count all their ballots in a central location.

“Our board will take the necessary steps to ensure that those who vote in person in 2024 get the experience they deserve,” Republican County Supervisor Jack Sellers said in a statement. I am sure of that.