PHOENIX (AP) 鈥 When the Republican candidate for Arizona governor accused the state鈥檚 most populous county of 鈥渟low-rolling鈥 the vote count to skew early election results, a local official fired back.
鈥淨uite frankly, it is offensive for to say that these people behind me are slow-rolling this, when they鈥檙e working 14 to 18 hours鈥 every day, said Bill Gates, the Republican chairman of the Maricopa County board of supervisors. On Monday, Democrat Katie Hobbs , a Donald Trump ally who falsely claimed and has refused to say she would accept the results of her race this year.
Gates and other Maricopa County election officials aggressively batted down rumors and slanted or false claims, as vote counting has come under intense scrutiny in the battleground state. The accusations have come in all types and at all hours from Trump and the former president's supporters, as well as other Republican candidates and voters.
"Sadly, there continues to be from all different sources that are out on social media right now,鈥 Gates said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we have to continue to do this.鈥
Election officials have had two years to hone their game.
In 2020, Maricopa County landed in the national spotlight while certifying results amid false claims that the election was stolen from Trump. The following year, it underwent an 鈥渁udit鈥 pushed by Republicans in the state Senate, which ended with a report validating Biden鈥檚 win.
鈥淭hat was just a constant flow of misinformation that we became adept at responding to," Gates said.
In May, county officials began talking publicly about what to expect in the upcoming midterm elections. They have held regular news conferences since early October, and since Election Day officials have held briefings nearly every day. They also have a large public affairs team that can quickly respond to new or renewed claims of fraud or mismanagement.
One persistent claim started when
Lake and other Republicans said the county has timed vote releases so Democratic areas of the metro Phoenix area are released first. Gates has spent days explaining how that鈥檚 not happening and is not possible. In truth, the county processes ballots using a first-in, first out system.
That means mail-in ballots that are dropped off at the polls on Election Day are processed in the order they are received at the county鈥檚 election headquarters.
鈥淭hat鈥檚 how we do this,鈥 Gates said Saturday. 鈥淲e鈥檙e not picking them from certain parts of town. In fact, we can鈥檛 do that, because we have a vote center model.鈥
Vote centers mean any voter can walk into any polling place across the metro area to cast a ballot in-person or drop off their early ballots. And because ballots dropped off at vote centers are kept together for processing, the votes could be from anywhere. He called the allegations 鈥渋rrelevant鈥 and an 鈥渋ncredible distraction.鈥
A record 290,000 of those ballots were dropped off at the county鈥檚 223 vote centers on Election Day and are now being processed. As of Monday morning, the county had between 185,000 and 195,000 ballots to count, while nearly 1.4 million in-person and early ballots had been tabulated.
Gates said the audit taught the board and other county leaders the importance of battling misinformation quickly and accurately.
He and county Recorder Stephen Richer have taken the lead, with Democratic Sheriff Paul Penzone also taking the podium at times. Gates is a lawyer who for years represented the GOP during county elections. Penzone said the constant unfounded claims have forced Gates and Richer to spend an inordinate amount of time explaining why they are wrong.
鈥淲hat鈥檚 the saying, a lie travels around the world 鈥 10,000 times before the truth even gets started?鈥 Penzone said Saturday. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what we鈥檙e seeing here. We鈥檙e seeing people empowered by saying things that make them feel good, and they鈥檙e not accountable for it, and they lie.鈥
David Becker, a former U.S. Justice Department lawyer who now runs the nonprofit Center for Election Innovation and Research, praised county election officials and Gates in particular for their rapid and consistent responses.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e doing an outstanding job,鈥 Becker said. 鈥淚鈥檒l tell you, I think Bill Gates and his colleagues have been the best of American governance, not just in the last week, but over the course of the past several years while they鈥檝e been running elections in Maricopa County.鈥
The Republican Party of Arizona has complained about Election Day issues and the prolonged vote count, which is normal in Arizona. Party Chair Kelli Ward complained about ballot-counting machines that could not always read the ballots. The 17,000 affected ballots were instead taken to the county's central facility. Black bags of those ballots were stacked for processing Monday.
Not every claim is a lie, but the accusations have answers that make sense. On Friday night, losing Republican U.S. Senate candidate Blake Masters accused the county of mixing up counted ballots with those that could not be tabulated by the vote center machines at least twice. He demanded that the more than 1.4 million ballots that had already been tabulated be recounted, calling it a "giant disaster.鈥
Megan Gilbertson, spokeswoman for the county elections department, told The Associated Press that election workers at two vote centers did combine voted ballots with a batch that could not be read by the on-site tabulators, but that the mix-up did not lead to double-counted or uncounted ballots because the department has systems in place to deal with such occurrences.
鈥淏ecause ballots are tabulated by batch, we are able to isolate the results from those specific locations and reconcile the total ballots against check-ins to ensure it matches,鈥 she wrote less than two hours after Masters made the statement. 鈥淭his is done with political party observers present and is a practice that has been in place for decades.鈥
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