Arizona Elections Officials: Long Lines In Some Places, But Overall Smooth Election Day

By Casey Kuhn
Published: Wednesday, November 9, 2016 - 3:16pm
Updated: Wednesday, November 9, 2016 - 4:13pm
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(Photo by Casey Kuhn - KJZZ)
Ballot workers get the final tabulations ready to deliver in Maryvale as the last voter cast their ballot at 9 p.m.

Another Election Day has come and gone for Valley voters and most of those who waited to cast their ballots didn’t see any problems.

Voters rights advocacy groups warned of potential voter intimidation and urged people to call and report any problems at the polls.

Of all the 724 polling locations, the main problems were long waits and occasional electronic poll book malfunctions.

Arizona Advocacy Network Director Samantha Pstross said her group fielded a thousand phone calls from volunteers watching for poll troubles.

“We did continue to get calls from our volunteers about problems," Pstross said. "We anticipated having a lot of lines at 7 p.m. but there were not nearly as many lines as we anticipated.”

At some polls, the e-pollbooks crashed and needed to be replaced.

But Maricopa County Recorder’s Office spokeswoman Elizabeth Bartholomew said those were isolated incidents, and the lines were always going to happen.

“We always knew there was going to be lines," Bartholomew said. "This is a presidential election, a lot of people turned out to vote which is great. And I think we were definitely able to handle all of that.”

If voters experienced problems, they can still call the Arizona Advocacy Network hotline to report them.

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