An independent investigation conducted by former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor found that older printers and longer ballots printed on heavier paper were to blame for a printer issue at several precincts in Maricopa County that prevented some ballots from being properly scanned on site during Election Day 2022.
The independent investigation and report mark the latest move by officials in the state’s most populous county to refute conspiracy theories about the printer problems.
Republican Kari Lake, who lost her bid for governor in 2022 and has espoused stolen election claims, is among the GOP candidates who have claimed that the Election Day problems in Maricopa County contributed to their defeats. On Twitter, Lake called the investigation a “waste of taxpayer money” and said the county’s elections are “a mess.”
The investigation found that some of the older printers “could not maintain the heat required” for consistently printing dark ballots for the on-site tabulators but were “taken back to the Elections Department where they were successfully tabulated and counted,” according to a news release from the county.
“All legal ballots were counted and included in the official results, but the printer issues caused frustration for many Election Day voters, something the Board has vowed to remedy,” the county said.
The report included recommendations for the county, including replacing printers and using previous ballot paper that was shorter and weighed less.
“It shows that two things can be true at the same time: our elections team prepared well for the 2022 General Election and had every reason to trust our procedures and equipment,” Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said in the news release. “And yet, we can do better knowing what we know now.”
On Election Day, a Republican…
Read the full article here