Vote times predicted to run longer than anticipated by Maricopa County, prompting concern from the Republican National Committee (RNC) and congressional candidate Abraham Hamadeh that disenfranchisement may result.
The Dhillon Law Group — on behalf of the RNC and Hamadeh campaign — submitted a letter on Thursday to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and Recorder Stephen Richer asking for a new plan to address the longer-than-anticipated average voting time.
Harmeet Dhillon wrote in her letter to the county officials that the lengthy ballots would results in voters taking, on average, 15 minutes to complete their ballots, much longer than the 12-minute average anticipated by the county for Election Day. Dhillon observed that the county came up with its 10.4 to 12.4 minutes time-to-vote estimate in the spring prior to when the actual, “long” ballot was made available.
Volunteers came up with the 15-minute estimate by testing the sample ballot on real Maricopa County voters.
“Our observations in the field confirm this concern,” wrote Dhillon. “Several election integrity and voter advocates became concerned at the long ballot and whether the Election Plan had properly and fully considered the impact on election day voting on a two-page, two-sided (essentially four pages) ballot (“the Long Ballot”). Using the actual sample ballot, they gathered more than 50 Maricopa residents and measured their time-to-vote. The results found the average time-to-vote of these Maricopa residents was [over] 15 minutes, while the maximum time to vote was much higher.”
Dhillon requested an emergency meeting and suggested solutions to include additional privacy booths in voting centers and more public education on voting in this election.
“Potential remedial efforts include deploying some of the backup voting machines, installing additional voting secrecy booths, activating emergency locations, and a county-wide effort to inform voters of the looming issues and the need to vote early, or how to identify voting centers with shorter lines,” said Dhillon. “We recognize that there may be challenges to any proposed solution, some of which cannot be overcome, but we would welcome a discussion about what can be done.”
The “Long Ballot” for this election is a two-sided, two-paged ballot.
Dhillon cited vote estimates which determined that the county’s election plan didn’t factor the estimated 80 percent voter turnout for the number of vote centers needed. Verity Vote claimed that the plan relied on turnout of 55,000 fewer voters than are anticipated to vote on Election Day.
The vote analysis also noted that Paradise Valley Community College had just one instead of two adjacent voting locations for this year, though it had one of the highest Election Day turnouts and had two in 2022.
“This could create an unmanageable backlog,” said Dhillon.
Dhillon’s letter also mentioned the likelihood of election equipment failure. She cited the recurrence of jammed vote center printers back in July, as well as the 2022 jammed printers. Dhillon cited remarks from Scott Jarrett, the county’s elections director.
“In fact, Scott Jarrett recently issued a warning that ‘vote tabulation machines could jam in Maricopa County because voters will have to insert two sheets of paper instead of one when casting their ballots,” quoted Dhillon.
On Wednesday, Richer reported that the county had received back approximately up to 30 percent of the vote. Results of these ballots, as with all others, will be made available at 8 p.m. Arizona time on Election Day.
Have you voted?
We’ve probably already received back 25-30% of the total vote.
All of these results will be available right at 8:00 PM on Election Day.
As will any other early ballots we receive early.
Let’s make it as close to 100% as possible!
Video on what gets tabulated…
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) October 23, 2024
