One day after the election, Maricopa County Supervisor Steven Gallardo, a spokesperson from the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, told KJZZ that cost was not the primary reason for cutting the number of polling sites from 200 to 60.
But at a Feb. 17 Maricopa County Board of Supervisors meeting, County Elections Director Karen Osborne said:
"We have had, at your direction, to try and keep the Presidential Preference (Election) cheap as humans could do it. I still as we stand here do not have governor's signature on any bill that would fully fund what it’s going to cost."
The board unanimously voted to approve the polling sites.
Fast forward to March 22. Thousands of registered voters standing in line for hours under the warm Arizona sun. Many walked away without casting their vote.
The reaction was swift. Gov. Doug Ducey issued a statement calling the lines unacceptable. Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton called for a federal investigation into the matter. In his request to the U.S. Department of Justice, he said his appeal comes "on the heels of consistent activity that has created a culture of voter disenfranchisement."
"For example, why do we reject so many more provisional ballots than almost any other state in the United States of America?" asked Stanton. "It’s not that people are less eligible to vote here, there’s something going on there that needs to be reviewed."
And now the White House will address what happened. A petition was filed on whitehouse.gov to investigate alleged voter fraud and suppression. More than 100,000 people have signed the petition.
