MIDTERMS 2022: Voting problems reported across the country

As midterm votes began nationwide on Tuesday, trouble was quickly reported in states like Arizona, Pennsylvania and New Jersey in elections expected to draw record turnout.

In Arizona’s Maricopa County — the most populous county, which has the potential to run an election between Republicans and Democrats — County Regulators Chairman Bill Gates said 20 percent of 223 voting centers had machines that weren’t working properly. worked.

In a video posted to Twitter, Gates explained that about one in five ballots in those centers were misread by the “tabulators.”

“We’re trying to resolve this issue as quickly as possible,” Gates said. “And we also have a redundancy.”

He then showed how voters could instead place their ballots in a secure box so they could be tabulated later. Registered voters in Maricopa County can go to any polling station in the county.

Still, Republicans on Twitter were outraged by the news — as Arizona hosts both a competitive senate and governor race.

In Pennsylvania, thousands of voters in the Pittsburgh and Philadelphia regions were warned to “cure” their ballots.

Election officials have advised these voters to come to provincial election offices to fix their ballot papers, request a new mail-in ballot, or vote on Election Day preliminary ballot to rectify these errors.

In Allegheny Countywhere Pittsburgh is located, nearly 1,000 voters were on a list of individuals who had forgotten to date or misdated their ballots.

in Philadelphia, the council of election warned nearly 2,000 their vote lacked a date. Nearly 400 more may have incorrectly dated their ballots.

In addition, about 150 Philly voters failed to sign their ballots, while about 1,000 voters turned in “naked” ballots, meaning they forgot to send in their ballots surrounded by a secretive envelope.

Voters have until Nov. 14 in Pennsylvania to “cure” their ballots.

The campaign for Democratic Senate hopeful John Fetterman has filed a lawsuit in federal court to challenge the ruling of the divided Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

“The date statement imposes unnecessary hurdles for eligible Pennsylvanians to exercise their most fundamental right, leading to otherwise valid votes being arbitrarily rejected without any mutual benefit to the Commonwealth,” argued attorneys for Fetterman and other Democratic groups. .

Thus, the date on a ballot paper has no bearing on a voter’s qualifications and serves no purpose other than to create barriers to qualified voters exercising their basic constitutional voting rights. This unnecessary impediment violates the Civil Rights Act and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution,” they continued.

In addition, a judge in Northeastern Pennsylvania’s Monroe County on Monday gave the go-ahead for how voters are warned that their ballots contain errors.

In Mercer County, New Jersey all voting machines made by Dominion were down.

Officials told voters they can still come to the polls and cast a traditional paper vote.

‘The Electoral Council has advised the province about problems with voting machines. Pollsters will be on hand to guide voters through the process. The board is working with Dominion, the machine maker, to resolve the issue,” the country’s Facebook page read.

New Jersey residents won’t vote for a governor or senator this year, but more than a quarter of the seats in the state house are competitive.

In Iron County, Utah, voters were warned that they may have to vote in person due to delays in submitting ballots.