PHOENIX — Technicians were dispatched to polling sites across Arizona's largest county on Election Day to fix dozens of malfunctioning vote tabulation machines, a widespread issue that frustrated voters and led some GOP politicians and pundits to spread misleading or false information.
While Maricopa County election officials initially categorized the problem as a "hiccup," it took hours before a solution was identified early Tuesday afternoon. The fallout over the course of the day forced officials to scramble on messaging and push back on claims that sought to question the integrity of the election.
"Everyone is still getting to vote. No one has been disenfranchised," Bill Gates, chairman of the Maricopa County board of supervisors and a Republican, told reporters in downtown Phoenix following reports of equipment problems Tuesday morning.
"When we test these machines, that's part of the process. We go through it for every election," he added. "And in this particular instance, this is something we didn't anticipate."
Election officials stressed that the machines were not inaccurately reading ballots, but rather, not accepting them at all.
About 60 of the county's 223 voting locations reported related problems. Gates said technicians were "doing what they can to get these back online."
Matthew Sanderson, co-leader of the political law group at the law firm Caplin & Drysdale, said in an email that these are common problems.
“Some tabulator machines in Maricopa County,...
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