Maricopa County says 20% of polling places have equipment issues but votes are fine

About 1 in 5 polling locations in Maricopa County, Ariz., were experiencing a technical problem with their ballot tabulator machines in the first hours of Election Day — but officials say the votes will still be counted, thanks to their redundancy protocols.

"We've got about 20% of the locations out there where there's an issue with the tabulator," Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates said in a video update posted online. Describing the problem, he said that after some voters fill out their ballot, the machine won't accept it.

The issue was quickly used by right-leaning influencers as fuel for their claims that the 2022 midterms are vulnerable to election fraud, according to the Election Integrity Partnership, a research coalition that focuses on misinformation around elections.

"Attention spiked after a tweet from Charlie Kirk, which fueled others who allege that these machine failures are deliberate," the research group said.

"There is high likelihood that these narratives around machine malfunctions will gain traction in other states," the Election Integrity Partnership said, adding that influencers and their audiences are looking to amplify such stories.