"The worst we've ever seen": Issues in Apache County, Arizona, preventing voters from casting ballots

[orangecrush]

"The worst we've ever seen": Issues in Apache County, Arizona, preventing voters from casting ballots
From CNN's Danya Gainor
Some voters in Apache County, Arizona, were turned away before they could cast ballots on Election Day due to faulty machines, with voting issues “the worst we've ever seen,” Katherine Belzowski, assistant attorney general at the Navajo Nation Department of Justice , told CNN.

The faulty machines, which are printing only propositions and not the candidates, on the ballots, are forcing poll workers to use express voting machines, or EVMs, Belzowski said. Each polling location in the county has only one EVM, and the machines are prone to freezing.

It is unclear what is causing the technical difficulties, but officials say voting issues are not new to Apache County.

“This isn't the first time Apache County has had voting issues on Election Day, but this is the worst we've ever seen it,” Belzowski said. The Navajo Nation Department of Justice is looking into potential legal action to “at the very least” keep polling locations open late Tuesday.

A Democratic poll watcher in the county told CNN the voting difficulties are a “disgrace.”

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/2024-election-trump-harris/index.html#cm34s5xrd002p3b6m4w510n4c

Definitely sounds like ratfuckery.

[beaglelover]

1. This IS a disgrace. It's 2024, this type of thing should not be happening anywhere.

[orangecrush]

2. Let me guess

How these people usually vote.

[kwolf68]

8. I know right

Wonder why never problems in PoDunk Red-Ville with voting?

[orangecrush]

9. Great question

I hope they are able to get to the bottom of this, and whoever is behind it gets jail time.

[orangecrush]

36. The last time that county went republican

Was Reagan.

Wikipedia says the Navajo consistently deliver the county for Democrats.

[orangecrush]

37. Here

"The majority Native American population votes solidly for Democratic national candidates and generally helps carry the county for their presidential candidates. No Republican presidential nominee has won Apache County since Ronald Reagan in 1980,[19] when incumbent President Jimmy Carter was viewed as extremely weak on issues pertaining to the West, especially water development.[20] During most of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s Apache was the most Democratic county in Arizona."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_County,_Arizona

[wnylib]

50. Navajo country. Mostly Dem. It's both a political and a racial issue.

[orangecrush]

62. Correct

I had to look it up.

[Wednesdays]

19. When we were in line to vote this morning

...another woman in line mentioned that waiting in line doesn't happen in other countries. Even in Australia, where there's compulsory voting, she said.

The USA is capable of making voting easy. But then, the "wrong kinds of people" would get to vote, ya know?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

25. OUR voting should be fast, easy, and convenient for US. More places, more days, more ways.

Republicans want to choose their voters instead of voters choosing.

[calimary]

48. That's THE point.

That's EXACTLY the point. If they expected you not to vote for them, they'd at least be tempted to find a way to block you.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

49. It's always the GOP who put up obstacles to voting.

Republicans seek chaos and vengeance; Democrats seek to make things better.

Only one side works to manufacture obstacles to voting.
Only one side works to take long-held rights from people.
Only one side contrives to suppress entire blocs of voters.
Only one side bans books that threaten their extreme ideology.
Only one side buys up and hollows out local media to extend their propaganda.
Only one side uses bullying and terroristic threats to intimidate election workers, prosecutors, teachers, and court staff.
Only one side tirelessly tries to defund and dismantle public education.
Only one side robs the poor to feed the insatiable greed of the obscenely wealthy.

[calimary]

51. Totally. Sad but true, sad to say.

[jimfields33]

52. You think the governor and AG are behind this?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

57. Nope.

[orangecrush]

63. Joe Arpiao.types

With inside connections would be my guess.

[RidinWithHarris]

3. Is this a predominantly red or blue county?

I see no big cities (which would tend to mean more Republican), but there's also Navajo land, which I'd guess leans Democratic.

[orangecrush]

5. Solid Blue

"The majority Native American population votes solidly for Democratic national candidates and generally helps carry the county for their presidential candidates. No Republican presidential nominee has won Apache County since Ronald Reagan in 1980,[19] when incumbent President Jimmy Carter was viewed as extremely weak on issues pertaining to the West, especially water development.[20] During most of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s Apache was the most Democratic county in Arizona."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_County,_Arizona

[uponit7771]

21. ssssssshit, how in the hell can this be happening with early voting?!

[Cha]

23. Oh NO... I Hope they Get Major Recourse!

Gov Hobbs must be on the Case

[AZLD4Candidate]

30. For every republican there is usually 20 Democrats on a reservation

Remember it was Jimmy Carter that signed the bills that gave us full citizenship. I saw us because my mother is full blooded Iroquois

[orangecrush]

38. This

"The majority Native American population votes solidly for Democratic national candidates and generally helps carry the county for their presidential candidates. No Republican presidential nominee has won Apache County since Ronald Reagan in 1980,[19] when incumbent President Jimmy Carter was viewed as extremely weak on issues pertaining to the West, especially water development.[20] During most of the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s Apache was the most Democratic county in Arizona."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apache_County,_Arizona

[newdeal2]

6. Vote early

Doesn’t excuse this BS, but I don’t want to wait until Tuesday to vote for this reason. Too many variables from traffic to weather.

[orangecrush]

7. You are right

There is no excuse for this BS.

[NoMoreRepugs]

10. Backup paper ballots should be mandatory I would think.

[iluvtennis]

11. Intentional voter suppression. Does anyone know if Arizona voters can do a provisional ballot? n/t

[MLAA]

12. This will hurt Gallego for Senate also. He met personally with 22 of 24 Native American Nations in AZ.

[sheshe2]

53. Yes.

I read he walked miles to meet with them.

[MLAA]

55. In one case to the bottom of the Grand Canyon

About files miles down and the return is hell. I haven’t done it, but have been in the lodge as hikers returned and they were wiped out and sore. 5 miles all switchback incline!

[soandso]

13. Arizona needs to get it's shit together

On top of this news in the OP, here's an article about how long votes counts are expected to take and look at Arizona:

Arizona Polls close at 9 p.m. E.T.
Could take days
First results typically come in around 10 p.m. Eastern time, an hour after polls close. Most voters cast ballots by mail, and counting typically takes awhile. While poll workers are allowed to process those ballots that arrive before Election Day upon receipt, they must wait until after polls close to process the ones that arrive on Election Day.

Two things could contribute to longer waits this year. Officials are now required to count and report the number of ballots dropped off on Election Day before beginning to process them. And in the state’s largest county, Maricopa, there are so many contests that the ballot is two pages, which means more paper to tabulate. Officials there said full results could take 10 to 13 days.

https://web.archive.org/web/20241105191016/https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/us/elections/results-timing-presidential-race-calls.html

That is just ridiculous.

[Mosby]

33. There are also 40,000 damaged voter registration forms to go thru

I would assume some of them are going to submit provisional ballots, if they weren't on the vorer rolls

The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office received a record number of voter registration forms this year on the final day before the deadline. However, thousands of the forms arrived damaged or incomplete.

The office received 90,000 forms, mostly from third-party organizations, but up to 40,000 were torn, wet, damaged, or otherwise unable to be processed. Officials say they could even be potentially fraudulent.

A large number of these voter forms were from groups that have a history of being “problematic,” to the office, officials said.

“We have asked our lawmakers repeatedly in years past to address the integrity of paper voter registration forms dropped off by third party groups. Sadly, nothing has been done,” Maricopa County Recorder Steven Richer Richer said in a tweet.

It could be weeks or longer for AZ to deliver results, IMO.

[Mike 03]

61. Damn. I thought we'd be better squared away than this.

Our election officials have sounded so confident and competent. This is really disappointing.

[ananda]

14. Don't they have to offer them paper provisional ballots?

???

[Takket]

15. "The faulty machines, which are printing only propositions and not the candidates, on the ballots,"

I don't understand this line. Ballots aren't printed on election day when someone asks for one. They are printed beforehand and kept in a stack and handed out. Why are they trying to print ballots?

[Shipwack]

17. Here in Bastrop County Texas mine was printed on the spot.

I had my ID verified, signed the paperwork, and they printed me a partial ballot.

I went to the touchscreen machine, fed in my paper, made my choices, and it printed out what I had selected.

I fed that into the tabulator, picked up my sticker, and walked out.

I agree, though, this is highly suspicious. Kindest thought is that they didn't have the money to maintain the machines properly and this one failed by happenstance. More likely there is some thought out fuckery to sabotage a Democratic leaning county's voting system, since the rest of the state doesn't seem to have this issue.

Republicans in other states apportion voting machines and hours out to make voting tougher in Democratic districts. Computer software has already been compromised by Republicans in the past. Outright sabotage is just one more step in that direction.

[AverageOldGuy]

22. Not exactly

A LOT of localities use a ballot-on-demand system that prints a ballot as needed. Mostly as cost savings - if you have 750,000 registered voters and you order 750,000 ballots but only 500,000 people vote, that’s a lot of money spent on paper that is destroyed.

[questionseverything]

69. I wondered the same

[lindysalsagal]

16. Lots of people need to be fired. It's not like voting was invented to this

Year. They should allow voting tomorrow on ballots with all candidates.

[AverageOldGuy]

18. In my little redneck Virginia county . . .

We have machines that print ballots as needed - but - we ALWAYS order printed ballots from our supplier and do not use the ballot printing feature .

But, then we are just a bunch of rednecks, what do we know about anything?

[KentuckyWoman]

20. Longstanding issues.

Hopefully Harris will make equal voting access a higher priority for ALL people once she takes office.

This silliness needs to stop.

[Raven123]

24. Hope Dems legal team is on this

[orangecrush]

39. Same

I guess the "Trail of Tears" wasn't enough, bigots still have to fuck with these people.

[AdamGG]

26. Probably by design

How are the voting machines working in the deep red areas of the state.

[AZLD4Candidate]

31. Go to Scottsdale and find out. I'm sure perfectly

[orangecrush]

40. Like swiss watches

[superpatriotman]

27. County contact info

County Election Director
Rita Vaughan
75 West Cleveland
St. Johns, AZ 85936
928-337-7537
T.D.D. 800-361-4402
[e-mail]

[orangecrush]

60. Thank you for posting this

[OMGWTF]

28. One more reason for 100% mail-in voting.

[BadgerMom]

29. Jonathan Nez, former Navajo Nation President is running

against a wealthy Republican.

Get them help.

[geardaddy]

32. The only machines we use here in MN are tabulating scanners

to scan our paper ballots. We fill in the circles next to the candidate's name or ballot initiative. You know, like standardized tests. Then it gets fed into the tabulating machine and if there is a problem (e.g., voting for two candidates in the same race) it spits out the ballot and you can do your vote over.

I know it's ridiculous to ask, but why isn't voting standardized among all the states?

[John Farmer]

35. NC has moved too machine-marking of paper ballots.

Apparently, some people weren't doing well at marking the circles.

This has also seemed to have affected the phenomena of couples voting 'together.' That does not seem to be happening so much anymore.

[Clouds Passing]

41. AZ SOS is a Democrat

https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/arizona/2024/09/19/who-is-adrian-fontes-what-to-know-about-arizonas-secretary-of-state/75295866007/

[Jakes Progress]

42. And no one will go to jail or lose a job over it.

I really get tired of reporting on illegalities perpetrated by republicans that take years to charge if they are even charges brought at all.

[KS Toronado]

43. These polling locations should not be allowed to shut down

until every unhappy voter is taken care of.

[liberalla]

45. I couldn't agree more! This is maddening!

[orangecrush]

59. The Tribal DOJ

Is trying to get them to stay open late.

[bluboid]

44. a-yup... smells like ratf*ckery

[ColinC]

46. ....

[pat_k]

47. A stain on society. Intolerable.

Disgrace is an understatement. I just don't know a word that captures it.

And what is the remedy? Get working machines in and keep open through tomorrow?

[brush]

54. More rethug dirty tricks? They know most there vote blue.

[orangecrush]

58. Sounds like it.

[orangecrush]

64. I think so.

[keithbvadu2]

56. Remember when Trump deliberately sent broken ventilators to CA?

Trump sent 18 tons of Covid supplies to China while America needed them.

Putin got necessary Covid supplies while America needed them.

[Passages]

65. Damn

[orangecrush]

66. A proud people

Who don't deserve to be treated this way.

?si=2EL4Q2hTB7goCYsH

[Passages]

67. I am so upset about this.

[orangecrush]

68. That speaks

To your decency.