Gates, chairman of the Maricopa Board of Supervisors, speaks about voting machine malfunctions on the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on Tuesday in Phoenix, Ariz.

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Gates, chairman of the Maricopa Board of Supervisors, speaks about voting machine malfunctions on the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on Tuesday in Phoenix, Ariz.

John Moore/Getty Images

Follow live updates and results from the 2022 midterm election here.

About 1 in 5 polling places in Maricopa County, Ariz., have been experiencing a technical drawback with their poll tabulator machines within the first hours of Election Day — however officers say the votes will nonetheless be counted, because of their redundancy protocols.

“We’ve got about 20% of the locations out there where there’s an issue with the tabulator,” Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates stated in a video replace posted online. Describing the issue, he stated that after some voters fill out their poll, the machine will not settle for it.

The challenge was rapidly utilized by right-leaning influencers as gas for his or her claims that the 2022 midterms are susceptible to election fraud, based on the Election Integrity Partnership, a analysis coalition that focuses on misinformation round elections.

“Attention spiked after a tweet from Charlie Kirk, which fueled others who allege that these machine failures are deliberate,” the research group said.

“There is high likelihood that these narratives around machine malfunctions will gain traction in other states,” the Election Integrity Partnership stated, including that influencers and their audiences wish to amplify such tales.

Election officers are engaged on an answer, Gates stated. In the meantime, voters can slide their poll right into a “secure box” just under the tabulator, he stated.

Here is a message from Chairman Bill Gates and Recorder Stephen Richer with an replace for @maricopacounty voters on Elections Day. pic.twitter.com/OkQczCklGb

— Maricopa County Elections Department (@MaricopaVote) November 8, 2022

Those ballots will probably be collected and despatched to Maricopa’s “central tabulators,” County Recorder Stephen Richer stated.

“This is actually what the majority of Arizona counties do on Election Day all the time,” Richer added.

While the precise nature of the issue in Maricopa County is not identified, it isn’t unusual for machine malfunctions and different balloting issues to come up at election time, when thousands and thousands of individuals rush to forged their votes.

Such snags can immediate a spread of reactions from politicians and pundits, from encouraging voters to endure the delay to suggesting the issues are the signal of a coordinated conspiracy.

Far-right figures from Arizona senatorial candidate Blake Masters to Republican National Committee member Tyler Bowyer tweeted about the issue Tuesday. Former President Trump — who has spent the previous two years sowing doubts and mistruths in regards to the U.S. election system — additionally weighed in, saying that in Maricopa, issues have been reported in GOP-leaning areas.

“Here we go again?” Trump stated on the Truth Social platform. “The people will not stand for it!!!”

“Hard to know if we’re seeing incompetence or something worse,” Masters wrote. “All we know right now is that the Democrats are hoping you will get discouraged and go home.”

The challenge has additionally been front-and-center within the governor’s race: Republican Kari Lake is an election denier who’s operating towards Democrat Katie Hobbs (the present secretary of state).