The primary elections in Maricopa County, Arizona, are a crucial part of the process of reducing the number of candidates from each recognized political party. This includes ballots for Republican, Democratic and Libertarian voters. Despite the fact that Republicans would not deliberately undermine their own voters and candidates, MAGA voters who did not trust the electoral system and went to the polls on election day were disproportionately affected. More than 1.2 million people voted for Lake in the race for governor, three-quarters of a million of them in Maricopa. Lake has toyed with the idea of running again, even for a higher office, but estimates that he has almost no chance of getting his party's nomination for any office in 2024. Warnock (D) won re-election in the second round of the Georgia Senate, defeating Republican challenger Herschel Walker and giving Democrats a 51st Senate seat for the 118th Congress.
During this period, Gates began to raise his voice more frequently and more forcefully in defense of the elections and the people who were running them. The county court finally ruled that Maricopa had to turn in the ballots and voting machines, and that's how the Cyber Ninjas circus began. In Maricopa County alone, four of the five supervisors, all of whom have stood shoulder to shoulder with the county's electoral machine, are Republicans. Nine candidates — five Democrats, three Republicans and one independent — rushed to run instead for the seat in the Tolleson area. The electoral board of the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center was behind a newly built security fence to keep demonstrators out. The former president used that statement to assert an unfounded claim that Maricopa County officials “stole the elections from Blake Masters, the Republican candidate for Senate.” The November midterm elections were the first in the country's history in which hundreds of candidates explicitly presented themselves as people rejecting the elections. The malfunction of the printers, which lasted between 7 and 8 hours during the important first waves of voting, was a serious problem and affected 30% of the voting centers in Maricopa County.
Based on what law enforcement considered a credible death threat, Maricopa County Sheriff Paul Penzone removed Gates and his wife from their home in Phoenix on election night and sent them to a safe place under surveillance. Maricopa County officials have emphasized in recent days that the flaws did not cause the ballots to be misread or prevent anyone from voting. The Washington Post conducted an analysis of the electoral districts of the affected voting centers using data provided by Maricopa County election officials and then examined the breakdown of voter registration in each electoral district using data from L2, an election data provider. So, what can we learn from all this? It is clear that there are many issues surrounding elections in Maricopa County. From voter turnout to security threats to malfunctioning printers, it is important to stay informed about what is happening in this important county. However, providing a cool-down area after each race is not one of them.
