National anger is mounting over the dismal and unacceptable ballot-counting situation in two key battleground states, Arizona and Nevada, regarding races that could determine which party controls the Senate.
In Arizona, ballots are being counted at a snail’s pace, and an original promise by officials to have all the votes counted by Friday night was extended on Thursday, sparking even more outrage.
The Arizona problem concerns Maricopa County, the state’s most populous county. On Election Day, roughly 20 percent of polling locations experienced printing problems with tabulation machines. That issue was ultimately addressed but slowed down the process considerably.
Add to that the hand-count audit currently taking place, and the results in the razor-thin battle between Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs could take some time to determine.
It was announced that results for Arizona might not be available until at least Monday, especially given the close margins in most of the top races.
“Bill Gates, Chairman of Maricopa County’s Board of Supervisors, just said that there are 400,000 ballots left to be counted in Maricopa alone and they won’t be tabulated until ‘early next week’ not including some ‘onesies, twosies’ here and there. Unacceptable,” Charlie Kirk tweeted.
Bill Gates, Chairman of Maricopa County’s Board of Supervisors, just said that there are 400,000 ballots left to be counted in Maricopa alone and they won’t be tabulated until “early next week” not including some “onesies, twosies” here and there. Unacceptable. pic.twitter.com/pP5RqmHkOs
— Charlie Kirk (@charliekirk11) November 10, 2022
The Maricopa County Elections Department tweeted Thursday that the process of separating the ballots from the envelopes had begun and added that there are still some 400,000 ballots to count. The county also linked an official website where the public can view the process in real-time. It can be found here.
The reactions on social media to the delays were fierce, with many users, including Republican Arizona Attorney General candidate Abe Hamadeh expressing outrage at the slow process.
Arizona DESERVES results on Election Day.
This is an embarrassment. Maricopa County needs accountability.
— Abe Hamadeh (@AbrahamHamadeh) November 10, 2022
Many have pointed out that Florida and other states manage to have their results counted on Election Day, as it should be. While there are some legitimate reasons why Maricopa County is slow, including state laws, high turnout, and the audits, one would think officials could have streamlined the process — to some degree — after the fiasco that was the 2020 election.
“Imagine being Maricopa County and being the center of ridicule concerning most of the 2020 election and having two years to fix the problems and still being unable to accomplish that,” one Twitter user wrote.
A similar situation has developed in Nevada, where several key races are coming down to the wire with tens of thousands of votes still outstanding and needing to be counted.
According to KTNV, in Clark County, Nevada, there remain roughly 50,000 ballots to be counted, which will likely not be completed until Monday.
Clark County, Nevada has 50,000 ballots left to be tallied and it’s going to take until Monday to finish counting them. pic.twitter.com/sJDspkvWWo
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) November 10, 2022
Shockingly, states like Arizona and Nevada did take measures to smooth the process in the wake of the 2020 election. Those states should absolutely turn to Florida to examine its laws and procedures that allow for the return of same-day vote results, which is what reasonable people expect in this day and age of technological advancement.
Otherwise, the continued slow rollout of the election results, especially in tight races that can change everything, will only continue to breed confusion and mistrust in the system by people who already lost quite a bit of trust in that system.
