Arizona Secretary of State calls for extended hours amid primary voting problems
Source: Arizona Republic
Lorraine Longhi, Arizona Republic
Published 4:45 p.m. ET Aug. 28, 2018
After widespread voting problems in Maricopa County on Tuesday morning, polling places might be staying open an hour later.
Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan called for Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes to seek a court order keeping select polling places open past 7 p.m. due to several reports of voters having issues with equipment malfunctions and closed polling places.
"In light of today's issues at Maricopa County polling places, they should seriously consider asking Superior Court to have selected locations open later than 7 p.m.," Reagan wrote in the tweet.
Less than an hour later, the Recorder's Office said it was considering keeping polling sites open past 7 p.m. so that people who could not vote this morning have a longer window of time to vote, according to according to Keely Varvel, Chief Deputy for the Recorder's Office.
Read more: https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/elections/2018/08/28/arizona-voting-problems-polls-may-stay-open-later/1125427002/
AZ8theist
(5,514 posts)Election screw ups.
In 2016, she cut primary polling places and created long lines waiting in the heat for hours. We pulled in a church parking lot (a new polling place for us) and saw a line extending around the building and parking lot. NEVER before had this happened.
We gave up. We were not about to stand out there in the AZ sun for hours for a primary.
What galls me beyond belief is how this idiot became SOS in the first place. Just look at her performance in the 2014 debate against the very qualified Terry Goddard:
Michele Reagan is an IMBECILE. Hopefully, she will get hammered in her primary.
Ptah
(33,044 posts)UPDATE, August 28, 3:51 p.m.: Despite calls from Republican Secretary of State Michele Reagan to extend polling hours after widespread reports of malfunctioning voting machines Tuesday morning, Maricopa County will not keep polling locations open later than the originally scheduled 7 p.m closing time.
The Republican-majority Maricopa County Board of Supervisors denied County Recorder Adrian Fontes' request to pursue a court order to extend the voting hours. In statement, Board Chairman Steve Churci said that neither he nor his colleagues were made aware of issues with voting machines that arose on Monday. He stressed that the county budgeted $3.9 million for new voting equipment after issues during the 2016 primary elections contributed to long lines.
"Now the Board is being asked to step in and take unprecedented action that may confuse voters, delay returns, and have other unintended consequences. We encourage any voter who wants to cast their ballot to be in line at any of your designated polling places by 7 p.m. and their vote will be counted," Churci said.
According to Fontes, 62 polling locations in Maricopa County had issues with machines today.
https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/primary-election-arizona-polling-10763135