RNC demands answers on how CrowdStrike outage affected Arizona voting systems

The Republican National Committee and the Arizona Republican Party are seeking answers on how the global CrowdStrike outage Friday affected voting systems in the state.

The RNC, the Arizona GOP, and former President Donald Trump‘s campaign announced Tuesday they have sent letters to every county elections office in Arizona seeking answers about how the CrowdStrike outage affected their systems after officials in Maricopa and Pima counties reported problems due to the outage.

“We are demanding information on any other systems affected, if vulnerabilities were exploited, and full evidence demonstrating that there were no breaches to determine the extent of the issue. Most importantly, we must have complete assurance that this will not happen again and that the elections systems are not susceptible to these threats during our country’s most important election,” RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Gina Swoboda said in a statement Tuesday.

“These breaches highlight alarming fragilities in the voting system, and we need confirmation that there was no nefarious activity,” the pair added. “How was this allowed to happen in a critical battleground state during the primary election?”

Maricopa County reported that the CrowdStrike outage had caused outages at “some” of its locations but later said more than a dozen voting centers were able to open Friday after everything was resolved.

In a letter to Scott Jarrett, the Maricopa County director of elections, the RNC requested answers as to what caused the closure of multiple voting centers on the day of the outage, how many voting centers were closed, and what steps have been taken to resolve the problems, among other questions. The letter also asks if any “vulnerabilities were created by the malfunctions.”

Pima County officials also reported problems Friday, claiming “voting services are limited” due to the outage, but later systems were working to distribute regular ballots. The county said 18 voters cast a provisional ballot Friday while its systems were having problems.

Arizona voted for Trump in 2016 but voted for President Joe Biden in 2020. Biden dropped out of the presidential race Sunday, endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to take his spot at the top of the Democratic ticket, but in the RealClearPolitics polling average, Trump was leading Biden, 47.4%-41.6%, in Arizona.

The Cook Political Report has rated Arizona as “lean Republican.”