On Monday, Maricopa County, Arizona, officials unanimously certified the results of the Nov. 8 elections.
In a press release, Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates said, “Today’s canvass is another vital step in the democratic process.”
“I am convinced that the canvass will produce an accurate count of all valid ballots,” he continued.
The certification came at the conclusion of a special meeting of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors on Monday, during which members of the public expressed their displeasure with the election and some argued that it should not be certified.
Citizens were given two minutes apiece to speak during the conference, with many expressing concerns about printer troubles at Maricopa County polling places on Election Day.
Republican Kari Lake, who hasn’t conceded after losing the governor election to Democrat Katie Hobbs, posted several of their remarks questioning the legitimacy of the election to her Twitter page.
Lake’s campaign said that printer problems disrupted 118 Maricopa County voting sites, according to Hill breaking news reporter Zach Schonfeld. On Sunday, the county revealed data proving that difficulties were present at 43 vote sites, with the possibility of up to 63 being affected.
Affected voters had the choice of waiting until the technical issues were rectified, depositing their ballots in a secure drop box known as “door 3,” or checking out of the polling facility and voting elsewhere after their ballots were spoiled.
Schonfeld stated:
“Lake and others in the GOP have also claimed that poll workers did not correctly check out some impacted voters who went to cast their votes at a different voting center, giving the impression that they were fraudulently casting a second vote, resulting in it not being tallied.”
“According to county officials, 206 persons attempted to vote at a second location on Sunday, and 122 of them were not fully checked out. Provisional ballots were distributed to those voters by poll workers, and election officials ultimately ruled that all but 13 of them should be counted.”
According to Schonfeld, the county also stated that 93 percent of polling places had wait periods of less than an hour, with the majority of all locations experiencing wait periods of 15 minutes or less.
