Ballot printer company says Maricopa County has not responded to report 'errors': 'All options open'

A printer company said Tuesday that Arizona's Maricopa County has not responded to its corrections regarding the county's report on errors at voting centers during the 2022 general election.

The company informed the Maricopa County Attorney's Office last month that the county's April report on issues that occurred with ballot printers in last November's election contained "factually inaccurate" statements. The printer company asked Maricopa County to make corrections, but as of Tuesday, has not heard back from the county.

Ballot printer issues at more than 70 vote centers in the county on Election Day last year resulted in long lines because tabulator machines could not read some of the voters' ballots.

The county commissioned former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor to investigate the matter and write a report, which directed some of the blame on Japan-based printer company Oki Electric Industry Co.

OKI responded last month to the report by saying it was never contacted by county officials and investigation teams working on their behalf. Furthermore, the company said, neither election services providers nor "any other parties associated with the investigation" contacted OKI.

The company said it would not provide a response to "each issue raised in the report," but would respond to three specific statements, which are "factually inaccurate."

In addition, the company argues in its response that "all of these inaccuracies would have been avoided had the investigatory team simply contacted OKI in advance of the report's release."

On Tuesday, OKI told Just the News that the company had "issued a formal communication to the Maricopa County Attorney's Office on May 1, 2023. We noted the factual errors in the published report and our disappointment at not being contacted at any point during the investigation. We requested that the county amend the report to correct those errors. As of today we have not received any replies from Maricopa County.

"As the factual errors contained in the report are damaging to OKI, and can create doubt as to our printer’s performance and ongoing product support, we posted the response to our website on May 10, 2023 to address these issues and provide the correct information to our customers," OKI added.

When asked by Just the News if the company was considering suing Maricopa County for its report, OKI said that its "goal is to have the report corrected to address the published errors, however, we will keep all options open moving forward."

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office told Just the News on Tuesday that they "have received the letter from OKI and are reviewing it."