PHOENIX (AP) - The new Maricopa County recorder says in a report released Thursday that a decision to drastically decrease the number of polling locations during the presidential primary election last year, which led to massive lines and the ouster of the prior office holder, came from the top down and didn’t result in any staff firings.
Adrian Fontes, a Democrat who unseated long-time recorder Helen Purcell last year, said his office will work more closely with staff and with the public to better prepare for elections.
The report outlines various issues such as an overworked staff and poor communication the led to problems in 2016 elections.
The report also reveals that about 168 votes in the Nov. 8 general election were counted twice because of a mistake with a tablet system that was meant to replace paper voter rolls at polling sites and update in real-time.
Fontes said it doesn’t appear that the issue affected the outcome of the election.
Fontes said during a news conference that staff who run the day-to-day elections operations weren’t consulted when the recorder decided to reduce the number of polling locations to 60, resulting in wait times of more than five hours for some voters who waited past midnight to cast their ballots.
Fontes said lower-level elections workers thought that the 60 locations would be “mega polling sites” with multiple polling stations and 10 to 15 times the resources.
“Much to their chagrin and to the disappointment of a bunch of folks, that plan proved to be wholly inadequate,” Fontes said Thursday.
Purcell, who conceded the race a week after the election, told the AP she made bad decisions based on information she had.
Maricopa County had 200 polling places in the 2012 presidential primary, but Purcell cut that number to just 60 in March, under the belief that large numbers of people would vote by mail.
Fontes vowed to work more closely with elections workers than his predecessor.
“My lesson going forward is listen to the folks who work in the office. They’re really quality people, they’ve been here a long time,” he said.
He plans on asking for more funding for more positions. Fontes’ s budget request for fiscal year 2018, which starts in July, is $11.8 million.
“When folks are working 15, 20-hour days for weeks at a time, that weakens their capacity to execute their duties,” Fontes said.
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