Grand Canyon Times

Researchers with the America First Policy Institute (AFPI) released a new report showing a "concerning issue" regarding registered voters and ballots cast in the 2022 Arizona General Election.

"The results indicate that there were either more votes counted than registered voters who voted in the 2022 Arizona general election or that Arizona counties have failed to keep accurate records of who voted in the election," the report said. "Either way, this study has discovered a concerning issue."

The report, authored by Dr. John Lott, president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, and Steven Smith, AFPI's interim chief operating officer, found a "potential 8,241-vote discrepancy" between the number of registered voters in Arizona who voted that day and the number of ballots that were counted in the state's 2022 general election. The discrepancy of 8,241 votes is approximately 29.4 times greater than the 280-vote discrepancy in Arizona's attorney general election.

AFPI said the study was done in response to "concerns" from some state officials about ballots either being counted multiple times or being destroyed.

The researchers submitted public records requests to six counties in Arizona seeking a list of the people who voted in the November 2022 general election, particularly in Maricopa, Pima, Pinal, and Yavapai counties. AFPI also included data from Apache and Coconino Counties, "where previous concerns about voting irregularities had been raised," said the report.

The analysis of precinct data showed "there were more ballots being counted than there were registered voters listed as casting ballots and some precincts where the reverse occurred," the report said. 

Across the six counties, the number of ballots counted exceeded the number of registered voters who were recorded as voting by 6,057.

In other precincts, the number of registered voters who were recorded as voting exceeded the number of ballots counted by 2,184. "That results in an 8,241-vote discrepancy, or 0.36% of the total ballots counted," the report said. "Some may say this is just a small discrepancy, but 0.36% amounts to 29.4 times the 280-vote difference in the Arizona attorney general race."

The authors suggested that some voters are given "secured voter" status, which involves their personal information being hidden, such as police officers or participants in witness protection programs, and if the number of those were subtracted from the number of discrepancies, a discrepancy of 4,187 votes remains.

The Yavapai County Registrar of Voters Office told AFPI that if a voter "checks in on Election Day but walks out with their ballot (does not put it in the ballot box), they will be listed as 'voted' because they signed the register but there will not be a ballot to tabulate.” 

Even if there were more ballots counted than registered voters, however, that "still leaves 2,242 unexplained discrepancies outside of Maricopa County, after taking into account the secured voters whose identities were masked; that is still eight times the 280-vote margin in the attorney general race," AFPI wrote.

Researchers also said there was a possibility that the data provided by election officials was inaccurate, writing that both Pima and Pinal Counties warned of that possibility, citing the fact that some counties begin updating voter lists immediately after elections take place.