Voting Machine Problems in Arizona Fuel Right-Wing Fraud Claims, Says Machine Still Operates, Has Been a Problem
On Thursday, the Arizona Secretary of State’s office released its most recent report on its investigation of “election fraud” in the state, claiming that the machines used in the March 8 presidential election were plagued with “out-of-date software” that “rendered the vote-casting machines incapable of verifying the results of the election.” However, the report, based on interviews with more than a dozen election officials, said all the machines used in the election had been tested, and that “the Department of Administration was not in a position to verify the testing results or determine if the machines were operating properly.”
The report added that “while the department of administration was aware of the problem regarding the voter registration software, which had been in place for several years,” and despite requests from the Secretary of State’s office about the problem, they were unable to address it until after the election. “This caused an unnecessary delay,” the report said. The machines, which run on software written in 2003, “have proven to be vulnerable to software bugs and could not have been tested properly,” it added.
“It appears that the Department of Administration did not have the proper processes in place and the testing results were not properly communicated to the staff of the Election Department,” the report said.
The report also found multiple “violations” of state election laws, including the same-day registration law, which the report said was “a violation of the state election laws.”
The report also noted widespread fraud and abuse in the state’s presidential primary election, and claimed that the Secretary of State’s office “identified more than 7,000 voters who had been registered multiple times.” At least 30 people had voted twice and 12 people had had their personal information “falsified in order to receive free groceries for a family member to vote,” it said.
The report found that in addition to having a “problem with the voter registration software,” Arizona officials used a machine that could only be tested using the voter ID card