Arizona Republicans accuse Maricopa County of voter suppression

by The Right Scoop

We all saw what happened last Tuesday in Maricopa County and it was a fiasco.

Tabulation machines in many areas of the county weren’t working properly because of some ‘printer settings’ issue and that created very long lines and, in some cases, voters being told they had to go elsewhere to vote.

There is no doubt that people who wanted to vote were disenfranchised because they didn’t have time to wait for hours to vote.

Now Arizona Republicans are accusing Maricopa County officials of voter suppression:

Below is the full statement from Arizona Republicans, which says that Republican voters were disproportionately and negatively affected by these issues:

The Republican Party of Arizona has partnered with Big Data Polling to conduct exit polling on Arizona voters following the 2022 Midterms General Election. Data from November 1st, 2022, through November 8th, 2022, indicates that Republican voters were disproportionately and negatively impacted while voting in Arizona’s GOP strongholds.

Exit polling shows that a low of 10 percent to a high of 17 percent of total turnout is Election Day Drop Offs. To be clear, that is defined as a voter who physically delivered their mail-in ballot to a polling station on Election Day. While historic, the publicly reported information showing a 13% drop-off rate correlates with our exit poll data.

Of those who reported problems casting a ballot on Election Day, 28% live and vote in the 1st Congressional District (REP), 14% in the 4th Congressional District (DEM), 30% in the 5th Congressional District (REP), 14% in the 6th Congressional District (DEM) and 13% in the 8th Congressional District (REP).

It was no secret that Republicans intended to vote on Election Day. The RPAZ and others publicly urged Maricopa County to prepare for a historic day of turnout. Sadly, that fell on deaf ears. The officials should have known better after an unprecedented number of Election Day voters during the Primary Election in August. While Democrats are more likely to vote by mail and thus were disproportionately less likely to be harmed by problems with tabulators and printers that arose on Election Day.

Maricopa County officials once again failed to deliver transparency in the electoral process. Arizonans are still unaware of election results days later. “Voter suppression reared its ugly head in Arizona at the hands of Maricopa County. Some wonder if it is just incompetence, while others question malfeasance. This cannot simply be accepted. It must be corrected before this election is certified. Exit polling shows that Republican voters were disproportionately disenfranchised by Maricopa County’s incompetence. We have no idea how many voters were unable to cast a vote at all, and we’ve been told that approximately 15% of Election Day ballots are going to digital adjudication – a process by which 2 strangers determine a voter’s intent. And those 2 strangers likely share a username and password with countless other people adjudicating ballots, meaning no individual can be held accountable for bad acts. The Republican Party of Arizona holds Stephen Richer, Bill Gates, the Maricopa Election Department, and the other Supervisors absolutely responsible for making Arizona the laughingstock of America when it comes to fairly, efficiently, and transparently running our elections.” – RPAZ Chairwoman Dr. Kelli Ward

Notice that Arizona Republicans aren’t accusing Maricopa officials of malicious intent, but only incompetence. We’ll see if that remains the same in coming days as the remaining votes are counted.

Either way, there needs to be a serious reckoning in Maricopa County over this. But will there be?


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