Arizona refocuses electoral attention on USA. After being a key state to certify the presidential defeat of donald trump in 2020, this year can also be if he swings both the Senate and Governor races on the Democratic side, as it seems.
However, Arizona is also drawing attention for some technical problems in the vote count. This Tuesday, the electoral authorities of the state have informed that the printers used in the county of Maricopa –the most populous and crucial in 2020– they were not marking the votes with enough ink, a lack of clarity in the marks that would have made it difficult for the computer program in charge of the recount to read what was expressed by the citizens.
This problem would affect some 60 of the 233 voting centers, around 20%. After eight hours of voting, some 17 cases had already been resolved after changing the configuration of those printers.
“Nothing indicates that there is fraud”
“This is a technical question (…) none of this indicates that there is electoral fraud“, have explained Stephen Richer and Bill Gates –nothing to do with the founder of Microsoft–, the heads of the supervision of the vote count. Both, Republicans, have thus ruled out the false rumors that have proliferated in the social networks, promoted, again, by Trump. Even outlets like Fox News, with an ultra-conservative bias, have also unfoundedly cast the shadow of suspicion.
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Late in the day, a Maricopa County judge rejected the Republicans’ request to keep the polls open beyond their usual closing time, 7 p.m., assuring that they had not provided any evidence that the problems with the machines would have deprived citizens of casting their vote.
The votes in Arizona and Maricopa were decisive in 2020 to decide the presidential victory on the side of Joe Biden. Thus, Trump and the extreme right The US then focused their attacks and conspiracies there to call into question the democratic processes. Now the pattern repeats. All the Republican candidates for the legislative elections are deniers who still deny the defeat of their leader.