Maricopa County discovers over 2,000 misplaced ballots

Over 2,000 ballots from Tuesday’s election that were misplaced by poll workers were discovered Friday morning, forcing election officials to rush to make sure they are counted.

In a statement, a spokesperson for the Maricopa County Elections Department said the ballots were placed in sealed boxes and mistakenly put in a blue drop box instead of being returned to the county’s election center.

“Immediately after the discovery, a bipartisan team of election staff took custody of the sealed bins and worked quickly to ensure chain of custody was followed. The green affidavit envelopes will now be signature verified and processed for tabulation,” Deputy Elections Director Jennifer Liewer said.

Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap said the boxes included 2,288 ballots from a ballot replacement site in Fountain Hills. However, the Elections Department said the ballots were from a voting location in the West Valley.

“The Recorder’s Office is rapidly processing and signature-verifying the impacted ballots to ensure that all lawful votes are counted,” according to a statement.

The Recorder’s Office is attempting to contact impacted voters by a 5 p.m. Friday deadline to cure, or verify, ballots with problematic signatures.

The issue is likely to inflame the already contentious relationship between Heap and the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, which oversees the Elections Department.

The two sides are currently engaged in a legal battle over who controls specific election-related functions in the county, and Heap claimed the misplaced ballots are the latest example of Board mishaps affecting voter confidence in elections.

“This mistake is deeply disappointing,” the recorder’s statement reads.