Arizona county’s ballot shortage leads to calls for resignation

Tuesday's Arizona primary took a turn for the worse last night when multiple Pinal County polling places ran out of in-person ballots.

The issue arose after an unexpected amount of constituents voted in person the day of the election, resulting in a substantial shortage.

On the night of the primary, Pinal County's Election district said, "If you experience an issue, a reminder: you can choose to use the express vote device located at the polling place, or as long as you are physically in line at 7:00 pm today, you will be permitted to cast a ballot. Voters who arrive after 7:00 pm are not permitted to cast a vote." They continued, "Pinal County is continuing to print additional ballots and distributing them to each affected precinct polling place.

Voters at Precinct 15 in San Tan Valley were given cards to come back later after the voting center ran out of ballots, according to FOX 10. The Secretary of State's Office confirmed that at least 11 other precincts were also affected, including Apache Junction and Eloy.

It's unknown if the ballot shortage affected primary results.

The ballot shortage isn't the first time Pinal County has experienced problems this primary season. Various early mail ballots had been sent out with errors regarding city elections. Some voters received ballots with elections they were ineligible for, while others received ballots that didn't include their local election. To remedy the situation, many of the county's voters received an additional ballot page.

In response to the election day disfunction, Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel issued a joint statement with the Republican Party of Arizona Chairwoman Kelli Ward.

"During Arizona's primary elections, the RNC and Republican Party of Arizona's poll observer program documented and reported multiple failures by Pinal County's Elections Administrator, including 63,000 mail-in ballots delivered to the wrong voters and multiple Republican-heavy precinct locations running out of ballots," they said. "This is a comprehensive failure that disenfranchises Arizonans and exemplifies why Republican-led efforts for transparency at the ballot box are so important. Pinal County Elections Director David Frisk should resign immediately."

The Center Square left a voicemail asking for a statement from the Pinal County Elections Department, but has received no response as of Wednesday afternoon.