HUGE BALLOT MESS IN PINAL COUNTY, Mt View Voters affected

Breaking news via SBINSIDER| August 2nd UPDATED 9:20 PM

All across Pinal County numerous voting locations reported a shortage of Republican ballots. Caused by bad planning and very high turnout of Republican voters, paper ballots ran out in at least 15 precincts in Pinal, including voters at Mountain View.

As of 9PM no votes from Pinal County had been posted. Usually early ballots are counted before election day and posted immediately after the polls close. 

Angry and frustrated voters were given provisional ballots at some locations and told to came back later as more ballots were being printed and would be delivered later. Exactly how this would take place before the 7PM closing time was not made clear.

Calls to the election office were not returned for comment.

At about 5PM the Pinal County Emergency Management System sent out an alert letting folks know of the shortage and that they had to be in-line before 7PM in order to vote.  SaddleBrooke County Board Supervisor Jeff McClure sent this message by email: 

Due to unprecedented demand for in-person ballots, Pinal County has experienced a ballot shortage in certain, limited precincts. Pinal County is continuing to print additional ballots and distributing them to each affected precinct polling place. 

If you experience an issue, a reminder: you can choose to use the express vote device located at the polling place, or as long as you are physically in line at 7:00pm today, you will be permitted to cast a ballot. Voters who arrive after 7:00pm are not permitted to cast a vote.

Still many voters were extremely suspicious that only Republicans were shorted ballots, saying “this looks like voter suppression to me” and “how could they under-print after the huge mess with mail-in votes?”

FOR MORE

https://arizona.votebeat.org/2022/8/1/23288017/pinal-county-election-director-turnover-staff-shortage-ballot-errors