Scrutiny high, but U.S. votes without major hitches

Americans voted without major problems Tuesday in midterm elections that drew intense scrutiny after two years of false claims and conspiracy theories about how ballots are cast and counted.

With polls open across the country, no widespread problems with ballots, long lines or voter intimidation were reported, though there were hiccups in some places, which is typical on any Election Day.

One hitch garnered outsized attention: Vote tabulators malfunctioned in 20% of polling places in Arizona’s most populous county that includes Phoenix. While election officials assured the public that every vote in Maricopa County would be counted, the issue prompted an outcry from Republicans in a state where elections for governor and U.S. Senate are expected to be close and where skepticism of election systems has run deep within the GOP since 2020.

Elsewhere, some voting sites in North Carolina were delayed in opening because workers showed up late, and officials extended voting hours there. And in one Pennsylvania county, polling places scrambled to replenish low supplies of paper ballots.

Election experts said the type and number of disruptions encountered by voters were not unusual.

But trouble with the vote-tabulation machines in Maricopa County sparked an outpouring of criticism on social media, and prompted Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake to say after casting her ballot: “I’m embarrassed for Arizona.”

A spokesperson for the state’s elections department, Megan Gilbertson, said the problem was minor and that voters had options for casting their ballots, including using the secure drop box at the polling place or going to a different voting center.

By midday, nearly half of the county’s 232 voting centers reported no waits at all. The longest wait was slightly over an hour at an outlet mall in the Phoenix suburb of Anthem.

The Maricopa County Elections Department said it had identified the solution and was fixing the tabulators at about 60 vote centers.

“I am very sorry for any voter who has been frustrated or inconvenienced today in Maricopa County,” county Recorder Stephen Richer said. “Every legal vote will be tabulated. I promise.”

Since the last nationwide election in 2020, former President Donald Trump and his allies have succeeded in sowing wide distrust about voting by promoting false claims of extensive fraud. Those efforts, which have eroded public confidence in elections and democracy, continued Tuesday as Trump and other prominent Republicans claimed that routine voting problems were a sign of efforts by Democrats to rig the election.

“There are attempts to use those election administration and voting machine issues that election workers are working to fix to spin a disinformation campaign,” said Jesse Littlewood, vice president of campaigns at Common Cause, which advocates for voting access.

The lead-up to Election Day this year was marked by concerns about further harassment and the potential for disruptions at polling places and at election offices where ballots will be tallied. Election officials say they were prepared to handle any issues that arose and urged voters not to be deterred.

But instead of intimidation, there were mostly more benign reports of partisans campaigning aggressively just outside polling places in some areas.

DAVID GOLDMAN — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Voters line up to cast their ballots in the midterm election at the Aspray Boat House in Warwick, R.I., Nov. 8.