Around 20 percent of polling locations are experiencing tabulation issues in Maricopa County, Ariz., a state where Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs oversees elections as secretary of state.
The county, which is the state’s most populous and includes Phoenix, Scottsdale, and Mesa, is sending technicians to fix "issues at a couple locations where the tabulator isn't immediately taking the ballot," according to County Recorder Stephen Richer. The county has 223 polling locations for today’s election.
Hobbs has not commented on the matter despite being the state's election overseer.
"People will go and try and run the ballot through this tabulator, maybe one out of every five or so of those ballots, they’re not going through," said Bill Gates, chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
Officials are telling voters they can leave ballots in the secure box part of the tabulator, which will be counted after polls close at a central location.
Videos are circulating on Twitter of frustrated voters reacting to announcements of the tabulation issues.
"I don’t trust it going in a box," a voter said after being told she could not take her ballot to another polling location if the tabulator failed to read it.
Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake told voters not to leave a polling location if they’ve checked in.
"If you have already *checked in* at a Maricopa County voting location where the tabulators do not work, you should *not* leave and go to another location without casting a vote," Lake said. "Your provisional ballot at the new location likely will not count."
Lake added that voters can wait for the ballot to be tabulated, ask to use the handicap machine, or leave the ballot in a locked box to be counted later.
"Nothing is working in the last half hour," another poll worker told one voter in a video.