NW Valley Times

Abe Hamadeh, candidate for Arizona's 8th Congressional District, and Harmeet Dhillon, counsel to the Republican National Committee, wrote a letter to Maricopa county election officials to request an emergency meeting to review election day plans in light of new evidence showing voters will take longer to vote than the county has planned for, posing potential issues and barriers to voters. 

"We hereby request an emergency meeting to discuss these issues and the Election Plan, with a view toward making immediate revisions and accommodations to address the problems identified in the Report," said the letter. "All of these datapoints are of great concern to us and to others who want to ensure that voters who choose to vote on Election Day are not, due to avoidable circumstances, blindsided by long lines that may discourage them from casting their votes."

The Election Plan originally estimated a maximum time-to-vote of 10.4 to 12.4 minutes, with a more conservative estimate of 13.1 minutes reported, but time estimates were not calculated based on the actual ballot, which was unavailable during its formulation. 

The sample ballot is a two-page, double-sided format—effectively four pages—and a recent survey with a group of over fifty Maricopa residents reported an average time-to-vote of 15.055 minutes, with the maximum vote time even longer. 

Further analysis by Verity Vote indicates that the Election Plan was not based on the projected 80% voter turnout. Instead, resources for Election Day appear to have been allocated based on an estimated turnout of 55,000 fewer voters than expected.

Projected voting times also do not factor in the risk of equipment malfunctions which occurred during the 2022 General Election. Director of Elections at Maricopa County Scott Jarrett warned that vote tabulation machines may jam as voters will need to insert two sheets of paper instead of one.

"We are offering to work together to take the necessary steps to protect the voting rights of all Maricopa voters," the letter wrote. "To that end, we would like to promptly discuss practical ways to increase Maricopa’s capacity for processing voters on Election Day. Potential remedial efforts included employing some of the backup voting machines, installing additional voting secrecy booths, activating emergency locations, and a county-wide effort to inform voters of the looming issues and the need to vote early, or how to identify voting centers with shorter lines."