And good afternoon, everyone.
Our big story today at 4 making your voices
heard in Arizona's midterm election,
10s of thousands of people out casting
their ballots in person today.
But technical issues at some
polling places in Maricopa County
are causing concern and confusion.
Thanks for joining us for this
important day all across the country.
And of course, here in Arizona.
I'm Mark Curtis alongside Garibay divine.
That's right.
We have a lot to cover right now.
And throughout the night it is.
Going to be a long night, team 12.
Adriana Loya is joining us live right
now from a local polling place.
But first we want to check in with
Team 12 Bianca Bono and Bianca.
There may be a solution to the problem.
The people were
yeah, that's right, guys.
Officials say they've identified the
problem and they have a solution.
Here's what happened.
Officials say that ballots at some of
those voting centers weren't printing
the marks on the ballots dark enough.
So therefore, the tabulation
machines that some of those voting
centers couldn't read them properly.
But again, they do have a solution,
and they're working on fixing them at
all of the impacted voting centers.
We're told 60 voting centers were affected,
and so far it's been solved at 38 of them.
Chairman Bill Gates. Said.
This equipment goes through thorough
testing before Election Day,
so it's unclear how this happened.
There's no question that's
frustrating. But again,
really important for people to understand
that all those vote locations,
they opened on time.
So it wasn't, you know,
wasn't a case where people are
showing up and the doors were locked,
but they were coming and they were not able.
Some of these people not able to
feed it into the tabulator.
It's frustrating,
but that's why I'm so grateful for
all the people who who worked on this.
This was a tough issue.
People were trying to figure it out
and now that we've got a solution,
really pleased.
Short time ago we got so again,
officials say this was a printing problem,
not a tabulation machine problem.
And it is important to note that voters
that encountered this issue still had the
option to physically place their ballot
into the slot that's being referred to
as door #3 on those voting machines.
And instead of running through
the tabulator there on site,
it would be physically brought to
this tabulation center in downtown
Phoenix and counted either later
tonight or early tomorrow morning.
Officials say they don't believe any voter.
Was disenfranchised today.
For now, we're live in downtown Phoenix.
Bianca Bono, 12 news.
Alright, Bianca, thank you.
Well, voters do have a few options.
If they're at a location that is
experiencing some technical difficulties,
they can stay where they're at and
wait for the problem to be solved.
They can leave their ballot in that
locked box that'll be taken to a
central counting facility tonight.
Or they can check out of their
current polling place and
go to a different location.
Voters have about 3 hours
left to cast their ballot.
And that's right. We've had Sky 12
flying up around the valley all day,
capturing some of the lines at
those local polling places. Team 12,
Adriana Loya is joining us from Anthem.
And Adriana, what are you seeing there?
Hey guys, we'll hear an anthem at the
boating center here at the outlet mall.
There has been a large turn out of
people that have come out here to cast
their vote and this has led to many
voters to wait in line for hours.
As you can see right now there is a line
that wraps around multiple storefronts.
Now officials here at this poll
location tell me they are seeing wait
times of about 2 hours on average.
Now after experiencing problems
with the equipment this morning,
I'm told county officials brought in a
new tabulator to keep the process going.
But voters here tell me just.
About an hour ago,
one of the machines was still
having problems reading their boat.
I needed to redo my ballot
actually because I had messed up.
So I had to print and it took about
5 minutes or so to print it and then
about 10 minutes to cast my votes.
And then the machines actually misread
my ballot about 7-8 different times.
So I waited for them to the machine
actually to accept it and then
it ended up getting accepted.
It seems like every election cycle
cycle there's there's always
some issues and so we're kind of,
I think we're acclimated to
those type of situations.
It was a little
longer than the primary.
It took about I got here about
11:30 and I just got out and.
That's my ballot,
so about 2 1/2 hours to vote.
And well, Despite that long wait,
borders here tell me that they
will continue to wait in line
as long as they have to to make
sure that their voice is counted.
Now some of them have even told me
that they're using their time as
they're waiting here in line to make
friends with the people who are they
are standing here for hours next to.
So you know, voters are expected to
be here at least until 7:00 o'clock.
We'll stay with 12 news on air and
online for the latest developments
on this wait times.
We're reporting live in Anthem.
Adriana Loya, 12 news.
All
right, Adriana, thank you.
Let's bring in political.
Consider Bram Resnick this afternoon
with some perspective brand.
This is a huge undertaking.
I mean hundreds of thousands of
ballots that need to be counted.
How unusual is today's situation?
It's not that unusual.
You know, this is my 9th election
election cycle here in Arizona,
and the night before Election Day.
I expect problems the next morning.
A machine doesn't work,
poll workers can't find the the
key to open the vote center.
Poll workers don't show up.
This is a large,
complicated undertaking on just one
day of the year every two years.
And stuff is going to happen sometimes.
Big stuff.
Viewers might remember the
presidential primary fiasco of 2016,
when voters had to wait in line
for five hours past midnight,
in some cases because there
weren't enough polling places
that cost a county recorder her
job in the November election.
I just wish it didn't happen here,
of all places, because of all of the
denialism and mistrust of the system.
But what was happening here
today that made it different?
Here's what was different.
Of the problems I described were
cleared up by lunchtime of that day.
Within the last hour or so we've heard,
the tabulator problem was diagnosed
as a ballot printer problem.
Technicians are working on it.
About 10% of the vote centers
still have issues, but lines at
some vote centers are still long.
The question is,
will this problem persist into the rush hour?
Vote before vote centers close at 7A.
County spokesman tells me that vote centers
will remain open for any voter who's
in line before closing time at 7:00 PM.
That's the key.
You gotta get there before 7 and
stay in line if there is a line.
Hmm.
OK, So what about the
political side of all of this?
How are the candidates latching
on to what's happening today?
This is the really big
difference from past years.
Can you imagine if this were
2016 in this current environment,
you know, the political climate.
The 2020 election never
ended for Republicans.
They're still sowing doubt about what
happened in 2020 and our elections.
Republican candidate for Governor
Kerry Lake was doing it today. Her.
Endorser Donald Trump was on social
media calling for an investigation.
Democratic candidate for
Governor Katie Hobbs is a target,
even though as Secretary of State
she doesn't run county elections.
But now the election Rejectionists
have some ammunition to question the
competence of our election officials.
I suspect a Republican legislature
next year will want to investigate.
This is far from
over. Real quickly.
Some are predicting a red
wave across the country.
If that happens. Does that end?
All of this denialism.
Are you kidding? No.
No. Even even with a red wave.
Even with a red wave.
If you look at Arizona,
we have a statewide slate on the
Republican side dominated by people
who reject the 2020 election.
This gives them steam.
A victory, doesn't it?
Well, Kerry said that she'll
accept the election if she wins.
This is affirmation from voters.
It's hard to deny that there is.
It's hard to say there's a problem if
you win big all across the country.
That's all I'm saying.
OK, we'll see. Doesn't believe me,
and it is just getting started,
is that I'm the glass half
full guy and I'm not. Right.
Our election coverage doesn't end here.
Minutes away on 12 news at 4,
we'll take you to tonight's campaign
headquarters of the two candidates
fighting for the governor seat.