Scattered lines as thousands of Arizona voters go to the polls.
Voters Tuesday braved lines at some polls, in others, they coped with heckling.
But no widespread problems were reported by 6 p.m. Tuesday, although the closing hour of voting saw long lines forming at vote centers scattered across Maricopa County, ensuring voters would be in line after the 7 p.m. close of voting. As long as voters are in line by 7 p.m., they are allowed to vote.
After casting their ballots, many voters worried about what comes next.
“I think there’s going to be a big political mess and probably some legal challenges,” said Nicole Moon, a communications professional. She showed up at her Gilbert vote center at 6:15 a.m. and said she hoped that if there were to be any riots, they wouldn’t happen during the day.
In Maricopa, Lynda Stradling said she doesn’t expect the results of Tuesday’s election to change the uneasy mood in the country.
“It doesn’t matter what happens today, no matter who wins we’re still going to be just as divided,” she said. “Until people can be open-minded and try to change their thoughts a little, it’s going to stay divided no matter what you think or what you want.”
In Chandler, two women who were handing out flyers with voting recommendations said they worried about fraud.
“The only way (Trump) would lose any kind of election would be through fraud,” Phyllis Minkus said, although she did not offer any evidence other than the fact that Trump campaign signs “disappeared” after being posted.
In south Phoenix, a voter struck a more optimistic note.
“The fear of negative things happening, I think that’s all it is, is fear,” Mia Hill said as she showed up at the Southern Plaza vote center. “I have hope that people are going to come together more than everything.”
Elections officials said turnout was meeting their expectations. There were scattered long lines at several Maricopa County vote centers early Tuesday, with lines beginning to form at some locations again around 5 p.m.
By 2 p.m., Maricopa County reported it had topped 100,000 in-person votes, County Recorder Adrian Fontes said. Already, more than 1 million county voters had cast early ballots.
Reports of voting problems bubbled up throughout the day.
Several polling sites in Apache County opened late and two others were closed, according to a complaint filed with the Election Protection Hotline, run by the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights.
Angela Romero, Apache County’s elections director, said she was unaware of any closures.
“As far as I know, they are all open,” Romero said in the late morning.
Late Tuesday, the ACLU said it was seeking an extension of voting hours in the northeastern Arizona county. Navajo Nation officials were working to get a one-hour extension for two precincts on the Navajo Nation, although the precinct in Chinle closed at 7 p.m.
A long line of more than 100 tribal
members looped through the chapter house’s parking lot as the poll closed. Elections officials said there had been lines all days, as Navajo voters turned out to cast their ballots for chapter president and other local officials.
In Queen Creek, lawyers with the Election Protection Hotline sent a team of “de-escalators” to deal with a complaint that a group was hassling voters at the Communiversity vote center by honking car horns, yelling and trying to photograph them.
The situation was resolved, the lawyers said. A spokesperson for the Maricopa County Recorder said if the yelling occurred beyond the 75-foot electioneering limit, it was not illegal.
U.S. Rep. Debbie Lesko, R-Ariz., complained about “biased poll workers” in a Twitter video after she said she was told to leave a polling site at Radiant Church in Sun City. She said a poll worker
moved the sign marking the electioneering limit and told her to leave.
The Maricopa County Elections Department clarified that the poll worker was mistaken, and corrected her.
Election monitors, both formal and informal, were out.
In north Scottsdale, a man wearing a Trump mask was yelling “baby killers” and “stop stealing my taxes” at voters who showed up at the Florence Nelson Ely Desert Park, according to John Ainlay, a Democratic precinct committee member for Legislative District 23.
With a surge of early voting this year, the number of ballots voters cast surpassed the 2016 election before the polls even opened on Tuesday.
The Maricopa County Elections Department already processed about 65% of registered voters’ ballots as of around noon Monday. That left about 900,000 voters out of about 2.6 million who still could cast ballots on Tuesday.
County election officials said they didn’t expect many issues, in part because most voting locations have been open for days.
Republic reporters John D’Anna, Joshua Bowling, Ebony Day, Kelly Donohue, Farah Eltohamy, Maria Polletta and MeganTaros contributed to this article.
Voters who faced issues at the polls can alert The Arizona Republic by emailing maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepu blic.com.