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Maricopa County says it has fixed voting machine problem impacting 20% of precincts, reports

Officials said the problem is related to the machines' tabulators, which count votes, but assured voters their votes will be counted.

Published: November 8, 2022 1:06pm

Updated: November 8, 2022 7:14pm

Officials in Arizona's Maricopa County have reportedly found the problem Tuesday with voting machines that impacted 20% of polling stations.

Technicians have changed the printer settings, which seems to have solved the issue, according to multiple news sources

The problems were reported earlier in the day and were attributed to tabulators that were not properly reading the ballots. 

The county's Elections Department posted a video on Twitter midday in which officials said they are working as quickly as possible to fix the issue, which is related to the machines' tabulators. 

Later in the day, they issued another statement saying they had resolved the issue. 

"Maricopa County has identified the solution for the tabulation issues at about 60 Vote Centers," according to the statement, obtained by the news organizations. "County technicians have changed the printer settings, which seems to have resolved this issue. It appears some of the printers were not producing dark enough timing marks on the ballots. This solution has worked at 17 locations, and technicians deployed throughout the county are working to resolve this issue at the remaining locations."

The locations of the stations reporting problems have not been released, but the problems have also been confirmed by Just the News. And the county Recorder's Officer has said that technicians have been called to fix the machines malfunctioning machines. 

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"We've got about 20% of the locations out there where there's an issue with the tabulator where some of the ballots where after the people have voted, they try to run them through the tabulator and they're not going through," Bill Gates, chairman of the county Board of Supervisors, says in the video.

Gates also said officials are working to fix this problem as quickly as possible and that if voters' ballots cannot be read by the tabulator, they can place them in a box attached to the machine and they will be counted later.

"Technical staff are working to resolve an issue with tabulators and investigating the cause," county spokesperson Amy Bolton told Just the News in an email. "Voters have a number of options to choose from if the Vote Center is experiencing a problem with a precinct tabulator. People can still check in and then vote their ballot at the voting booth.  Once complete, they can insert their ballot in the secure slot on the ballot box where it will be counted at the Tabulation and Election Center."

Authorities told local TV station Fox10 that the issues should not affect wait times with some of the longest so far being 30 to 40 minutes.

Gates in the tweet also attempted to assure voters impacted by the tabulator problems that their ballots will be counted and is giving them three options: "1) stay where you are and wait for tabulator to come online 2) drop your ballot in the secure slot (door 3) on tabulator 3) go to a nearby vote center."

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