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Thursday 10 November 2022
Minor poll problems twisted into false US election claims

ed calls to abandon the
technology.
In Milwaukee, a small group
of observers at the city’s
central ballot-counting fa-
cility heckled a local elec-
tion official Tuesday as she
and her staff used a flash
drive to export results from
vote tabulators.
Election skeptics also fo-
cused on a glitch in Detroit.
Some electronic poll books
used for signing in voters
displayed an error message
stating that numbers on
ballots already had been
assigned to an absentee
ballot. Poll workers were
able to use paper backup
poll books when the elec-
tronic ones had problems.
“It was identified and re-
solved quite quickly” and
voters who were wrongly
flagged were given ballots,
said Jake Rollow, a spokes-
man for the Michigan sec-
retary of state’s office.
Detroit is a Democratic
stronghold in a swing state,
so turnout there can be
key in election outcomes.
Election worker Patrick Schmeichel prepares to process ballots that just arrived from a ballot drop-box on Election Day at the King On Tuesday, Democrat
County Elections headquarters, Tuesday, Nov. 8, 2022, in Renton, Wash.
(Ken Lambert/The Seattle Times via AP) Gretchen Whitmer was
reelected as governor.
Democrats also won races
for attorney general and
secretary of state, defeat-
Continued from Front Two years later, the state polling place to be count- counted no matter which ing Republicans who ques-
remains pivotal. Democrats ed at a central office on method voters chose. tioned the 2020 election
But problems did not mate- held narrow leads Wednes- Wednesday, or take them But Kari Lake, the Repub- results.
rialize on Election Day. The day in too-close-to-call to another voting center lican candidate for gov- The GOP candidates for
director of the federal Cy- races for governor and U.S. on Tuesday. ernor, told her supporters governor and attorney
bersecurity and Infrastruc- Senate. Trump seized on the prob- that they should leave the general conceded. Trump
ture Security Agency, Jen Trump and some of his sup- lem in a message on his ballot to be counted later still urged his supporters to
Easterly, said Wednesday porters sought to amplify social network. He said only if they could not wait protest in Detroit. Michi-
that the agency has “seen problems with scanning the problem, which ap- — and that they should not gan’s secretary of state,
no evidence that any vot- ballots in roughly 25% of peared similar to a voting take it to another polling Jocelyn Benson, a Demo-
ing system deleted or lost polling places in Maricopa issue in New Jersey’s Mer- place. crat who won reelection,
votes, changed votes, or County, home to Phoe- cer County, was an effort In a late-night speech to said she was heartened
was any way compromised nix and the majority of the by Democrats to “steal the supporters Tuesday, Lake that Trump’s call was ig-
in any race in the country.” state’s population. election.” focused entirely on elec- nored.
Jennifer Morrell, a former lo- “The most concerning thing “Every national election tion issues. “The former president
cal election official in Colo- is the way those isolated in- you have problems like “The system we have right called on people to protest
rado and Utah who also cidents are being used to these somewhere,” said now does not work,” she and no one did,” Benson
now advises federal and spread mis- and disinfor- Lawrence Norden, senior said. “We the people de- said, adding that she was
state officials on election mation and lies around the director of the Elections serve to know on election relieved to see concessions
security and administration, election in an attempt to and Government Program night the winner and the from some of the statewide
said election officials were undermine people’s con- at the Brennan Center loser, and we will bring that candidates who had re-
able to resolve issues quick- fidence and faith in the for Justice. “The fact that kind of election back to Ari- peated Trump’s falsehoods
ly, showing that safeguards election,” said Sylvia Albert, we’re talking about them zona. I assure you of that.” about the 2020 election.
to ensure an accurate bal- director of voting and elec- the next day speaks to the As falsehoods about voting “That, to me, is a mark of a
lot count work. tions for the nonpartisan fact that there was an or- mounted the past couple successful election — that
After Trump lost Arizona to group Common Cause. ganized effort to weapon- of years, election officials we had succeeded in run-
President Joe Biden by just Codes on ballots that were ize these types of things.” received death threats, ning an election that was
over 10,000 votes two years printed too lightly to be The Republican official some GOP-led states re- transparent, smooth and
ago, he and his supporters read by electronic tabula- overseeing the election in stricted voting by mail and secure so that even people
peddled a string of allega- tors caused the confusion. Maricopa County apolo- public confidence in U.S. who might have been un-
tions about election wrong- Affected voters were given gized for the inconve- voting systems dwindled. happy with the results still
doing that crumbled under a choice: Leave their bal- nience and pledged that Efforts to discredit electron- accepted them.”q
scrutiny. lots in a locked box at their every legal vote would be ic vote tabulators prompt-