Tracking potential issues at voting centers, ballot drop-off locations

PHOENIX — Polling centers are open until 7 p.m. across Arizona and ABC15 is tracking issues at voting centers and ballot drop-off locations.

In the morning and early afternoon, voters reported long lines and some machines that weren't accepting ballots at various locations across the Valley.

Election officials held a news conference just before 9 a.m. addressing additional tabulation center issues. There are 223 polling locations in Maricopa County, they said about 20% of voting centers were having issues with tabulation machines.

As of 2 p.m., Maricopa County Elections officials say they've identified a solution to the problem, which impacted about 60 voting centers. County officials say the issue was a printer setting. "It appears some of the printers were not producing dark enough timing marks on the ballots," officials stated in a release. "This solution has worked at 17 locations, and technicians deployed throughout the county are working to resolve this issue at the remaining locations."

A press conference addressing the issue was held Tuesday afternoon. Watch in the player below:

Seeing a potential issue at your polling center? Let us know by sending an email to share@abc15.com.

A procedure has also been put in place for issues like this where ballots can be inserted in Door #3. Those ballots will be counted later by a bipartisan team, election officials say.

"Even when we did have this active issue, still, there was no one who came today with a valid I.D. who was turned away from the polls," Bill Gates with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors said. "Those people were given a ballot, they were given the opportunity to fill out the ballot, and then if the ballot was not going through this tabulator, they then had the option to put it down here in box number three, or also we’ve been giving people the option to check out, if they wanted to, if they were uncomfortable putting the ballot there in box three, and then they could go to one of the other 222 vote centers across Maricopa County."

OTHER ISSUES REPORTED:

Shortly after opening at 6 a.m., the Burton Barr Library voting location in Phoenix reported it was acting as a ballot drop-off-only site due to tabulation center issues. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer told ABC15 it was a "small issue" that was not impacting the ability of voters to cast their ballots. It was resolved at that center shortly after 7 a.m.

Maricopa County officials said, in that instance: "Poll workers put in the password incorrectly on the tabulators three times and they were locked out. This is a security feature designed to protect the vote. We’ve sent a tech to get the tabulators up and running. Voters can still check in and vote their ballot. But in the interim, voters have a few options. They can wait for the tech to bring out a new password and memory cards, they can insert their voted ballots into a secure door in the ballot box and bipartisan poll workers will insert their ballots into the tabulator at the end of the night, or they can choose to vote at another location."

"None of this indicates any fraud," Bill Gates with the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors said.

LIVE UPDATES: Track updates on election day and our coverage online here.

RELATED: Valley voter guide for the 2022 Arizona General Election

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