Problems in Maricopa County Election Linked to Changes in Ballot Paper

According to a report released on Monday by retired Arizona Supreme Court Justice Ruth McGregor, problems with ballot printers that led to lines forming at some polling places in the Phoenix area in 2020 were due to changes in paper. County authorities used thicker and longer ballots than before, and pushed printers to their limits, which the pre-election testing did not simulate correctly.

McGregor stated in the report that nothing in interviews or document analysis gave any clear indication that the printer problems should have been anticipated.

However, GOP candidate Kari Lake dismissed the report.

Lake has previously claimed in legal documents that serious printer failures at Maricopa County polling places contributed to her defeat in the previous year’s midterm elections. Lake’s campaign Twitter account, in response to the report released on Monday, said it was “a farce”.

“Maricopa County has released the results of their internal investigation & has SHOCKINGLY found themselves not guilty of any crime,” Lake’s Twitter post said. “We told you this was a farce. These people don’t think your vote or your opinion matters. And anyone who takes the results of this ‘investigation’ seriously is part of the problem.”

Over the course of several months, Maricopa’s investigative team printed and counted approximately 9,000 ballots in an effort to reproduce the fault with the printers. On Election Day, the printer problem was identified by the senior Maricopa County election officials and counted thousands of ballots from the affected printers on more advanced scanners at the county’s election headquarters in west Phoenix.

The report from McGregor stated that human error was not to blame, but rather the equipment. At the extremes, the report mentioned that one printer printed 850 ballots without errors, whereas another printer generated 92 misread ballots.

Ballot length was extended from 19 inches to 20 inches, and paper thickness was increased after some voters complained in the 2020 election that the Sharpie brand markers used in polling places caused ink to bleed through the paper.