Maricopa County officials are still attempting to finish counting the votes cast on their ballots from this past Tuesday’s midterm elections — which puts the results of quite a few races on hold until they finish — but despite being quite busy, the officials were able to carve out enough time to call out the insanity taking place between the voters and the candidates to bots and “disinformation super spreaders.”
The short thread tied to a social media post told everyone that not a single vote would be forgotten as they counted, counted only once, and then stated that the count will be officially announced once it was found to be entirely accurate — and not a single second before that point.
“VOTERS: All legal votes will be counted. Your vote will count equally whether it is reported first, last, or somewhere in between. Thank you for participating,” kicked off the thread.
CANDIDATES: All legal votes will be counted, including votes for you. If you have the most votes in the final tally, you will be elected. If you do not have the most votes, you will have lost your election.
— Maricopa County (@maricopacounty) November 12, 2022
“CANDIDATES: All legal votes will be counted, including votes for you,” it went on. “If you have the most votes in the final tally, you will be elected. If you do not have the most votes, you will have lost your election.”
Finally, turning their attention to speak directly to the social media response taking place to their extensive counting process, the thread stated: “DISINFORMATION SUPER SPREADERS: Please read Arizona election law & the elections procedures manual before asking leading questions about how something seems suspicious. There are processes + checks and balances in place to make sure every legal vote is only counted once.”
SOCIAL MEDIA BOTS: Your disapproval is duly noted but your upvotes and retweets will not be part of this year’s totals. This is not meant as an affront to your robot overlords, it’s just not allowed for in Arizona law.
— Maricopa County (@maricopacounty) November 12, 2022
“SOCIAL MEDIA BOTS: Your disapproval is duly noted but your upvotes and retweets will not be part of this year’s totals. This is not meant as an affront to your robot overlords, it’s just not allowed for in Arizona law,” finished the matter-of-fact thread from officials.
Despite the posts, not all people seemed to be agreeing on the official story. One harsh critic stated, “Maricopa County is using words like ‘disinformation superspreaders’ and calling everyone who challenges them ‘bots.’ This is textbook partisan language from people who are in a position that requires neutrality.”
Maricopa county is using words like “disinformation superspreaders” and calling everyone who challenges them “bots”. This is textbook partisan language from people who are in a position that requires neutrality. https://t.co/XtpHKkeN7o
— The Redheaded libertarian (@TRHLofficial) November 12, 2022
Since even before Election Day made its way in, Maricopa County found itself under the microscope, when a number of federal-only ballots were issued to voters that should have gotten full, complete ballots. This kind of thing only ended up getting much worse as Tuesday rolling in when a number of the polling location’s tabulation machines entirely failed to work correctly from the moment they opened their doors. Blake Masters (R), an Arizona Senate candidate that ended up losing out to Senator Mark Kelly (D-AZ), claimed that ballots that had not yet been counted could have gotten mixed together with one that had already been passed through a working tabulation machine.
At the crux of all the scrutiny sits Arizona Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Hobbs — whos race has been counted as one that is still far to close to call — due to her role as sitting Secretary fo State, she is Arizona’s highest election official.