John Moore/Getty Images
Automatic vote-counting machines went down Tuesday morning at some 20 percent of polling places in Maricopa County, Arizona, a locale that has become a hotspot for far-right conspiracy theorists—ex-President Donald Trump among them—looking to “prove” fantastical allegations of electoral fraud.
“It’s not like both of the tabulators in this 20 percent of locations are having these issues,” Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates said at a press conference after the issue was reported. “It may be one out of five, two out of five.”
Gates also assured voters there is a “redundancy in place” for anyone who can’t run their ballot through the tabulator: “Just slip your ballot into the secure box directory below the tabulator to be verified and counted later.”