Being a tech guy, and an election judge here in Louisville in 2022, this helped me understand how the mess happened. Reliance on human beings doing things as expected, such as adjusting printer settings between elections, is just asking for trouble. Hindsight is 20/20 but using different paper sizes is just one of those things that jumps out at anybody technical as potential for trouble.

To me the fundamental problem, and I think the fundamental problem in most instances of election malfunction, is an obsession with making voting *easy*. In some cases this may just be misdirected good motive but I’ve been observing politics long enough to believe that Democrats specifically desire easy voting and high turnout because they think it helps them win elections, and not just by fraud. The Powerline article notes there were around *12,000* different ballot layouts needed to cover all the variations of local races in Maricopa county, and the print-on-demand function is only needed because Maricopa choses to allow voters to vote anywhere in the county rather than at specific precinct locations on Election Day. (We do something similar here in Louisville but only for a few days of early voting at limited locations.) While pre-printed ballots will have their own problems, using pre-printed forms available at specific locations would have eliminated a significant number of the problems experienced. Yes, it inconveniences voters to have to go to a specific location to vote but so does having to vote on a specific day, or an of a thousand other procedural details, that help to insure integrity and honesty in an election and not just a huge pile of votes which nobody really knows how to count or where they came from.

So what will it be?
“Nothing to see here, move along”?
“Nothing unusual here? Happens all the time. What’s the big deal”?
“We did it to protect the American people”?
“But Trump and his vile spawn are trying to destroy America…and WE HAVE GOT TO STOP THEM BY ANY MEANS POSSIBLE”?…
Etc….

https://redstate.com/jenvanlaar/2022/12/22/maricopa-county-attorney-argues-that-voters-who-wait-until-election-day-to-vote-then-problems-reap-what-they-sow-n677545

Really?? So we can’t trust them with the mail in ballots and now we can’t trust them with the election day ballots.

I’ve mentioned it before about the Oklahoma process – closed primaries so Rs can vote for their preferred candidate. State-wide use of the same machines and process. Paper ballots which I scan and recounts are easy. The machines are not connected to the web, but have a separate and secure method of transmitting data. The mail-in ballots have to be requested, filled out and then signed off in front of a notary (free of charge) and be at the board of elections by the election date – none of the late acceptance. Limited early voting options which allow the election board to update the poll records for election day.

The mail in and early voting results are posted around 7 pm on the election day. So, all you are looking for are the in-person voting results. In November, those results were all posted by 11pm. The audit of results (random selection of races in each precinct) was completed within one week, if I remember correctly. If there was an issue, they identified it and recommended the correction (usually more training). But the differences were only 1-2 votes.

The state want to have good, honest elections so the process has been established. I wish all states could be as logical.

We have voting by precincts – something like 2,000+ precincts for the state and the voting spots are usually churches which have lots of free parking, easy in and out access, and there are a lot of churches in OK. Since they know how many voters are in a precinct, the ballots can be preprinted (with extras for spoilage). I am amazed that a large county in AZ would have ballots on demand and you can pick your polling place. I know that there will be only so many voters at my precincts so the lines will not be a problem.

This year, there was a F3 tornado which wiped out the church polling place. No big deal. They moved the voting place to another precinct at another church two miles away. And the voting went on….

Maricopa county had plenty of election irregularities in the 2020 election and now once again.
It’s one hell of a coincidence or it’s not.

And the details of how elections are conducted in Maricopa County are incredibly Byzantine, absolutely stupendously stupid and a fertile ground for error at the least and fraud at the most.

There are only two ways this illegality is going to stop:
— A judge ordering a new election, and/or,
— Putting election officials in jail, even for a token amount of time, for violating state election laws (which clearly occurred in this case).

Judges, essentially, have zero accountability which is why I don’t understand why so many of them are so timid about enforcing the law. I’ve served as an expert witness a couple of dozen times and listening to judges (“Mr. Jones clearly violated state statues pertaining to discovery, but I’m going to let it pass this time…”) is quite dismaying. I’m hoping Ms. Lake may have stumbled on the rare judge who actually wants to do his job.

File under: “42.5%??? ONLY 42 AND ONE-HALF PER CENT??? That doesn’t prove a freakin’ thing YOU %$#@^$s… SO WHAT that it’s only in Maricopa???…”