Technical issues spark ballot counting concerns in Maricopa County, Arizona

As ballots continue to come in on Election Day, technical issues in Arizona have been drawing scrutiny. Officials in Maricopa County reported problems with their ballot counting machines in the first few hours of Election Day. 

County officials said about 20% of locations in the county were having an issue with the tabulator and some of ballots were not going through. They said printer settings were the issue, and they advised voters to put their ballots in a secure box before the issue was fixed.

The technical issues stirred up social media. 

Some conservative figures called it “deliberate,” fueling conspiracies and lies about how ballots are counted. Others, like GOP candidate Kari Lake expressed frustration about the state’s voting system.

“This is incompetency, I hope it’s not malice,” Lake said, adding, “But we’re gonna fix it, we’re gonna win.”

Leading up to the election, an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey found 45% of Republicans had little to no confidence that votes in the midterm elections will be counted accurately.

Experts say it’s not uncommon for machine malfunctions and other balloting problems to arise at election time and that the majority of people will cast their ballots as normal.