(Phoenix) American conservatives, Donald Trump in the lead, denounced Tuesday technical incidents located in polling stations for the mid-term elections, the former American president going so far as to call on his supporters to “contest”.
“Proxy voting in Detroit is not going well at all. People show up to vote and hear themselves answer: “sorry, you have already voted”, affirmed Donald Trump on his Truth Social network.
“It is happening in large numbers, and elsewhere. Challenge, challenge, challenge! “, hammered the American billionaire, who never recognized his defeat in the presidential election of 2020.
The independent organization Vote.org, confirmed in a statement the existence of “technical problems with voting machines in some states”.
“It can happen and poll workers and state officials are working hard to address these issues and ensure voters have other options to cast their ballots today,” the organization added. who defends access to the vote.
In Arizona, polling was disrupted by technical problems affecting some machines in the state’s most populous Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix, the Grand Canyon state capital and surrounding areas.
In this county, “about 20%” of the 223 polling stations encounter “a problem” with the machines responsible for reading the ballots, explained on Twitter Bill Gates, the director of the body which directs this region.
It is around this county of 4.5 million inhabitants that a large part of the – dismissed – accusations of electoral fraud in 2020 were concentrated in this state where Joe Biden had passed Donald Trump.
“We are trying to resolve this problem as quickly as possible,” said Gates, while assuring that this did not prevent voters from voting.
” Alternative solution ”
In the event of a problem, an “alternative solution” is provided, he insisted. Voters can deposit their ballots in a “secure box”, which will then be opened “later in the evening” to count the votes with machines in good working order. They can also go to another polling station.
As soon as operations opened at 6 a.m., one of the polling stations located in a downtown library encountered problems with its machines, AFP journalists noted. Only voters who had already prepared their ballot sealed in an envelope could deposit it, the others were asked to go to another office 500 meters away.
Enough to reinforce the mistrust of some Arizonans, in this southwestern state where Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump in 2020, with barely 10,000 votes in advance, continues to be contested by Republican candidates, despite several audits and recounts that have demonstrated the validity of the results.
“This machine should have been tested a long time ago, last week,” told Donald Newton, a disgruntled Republican voter who managed to vote in the next office, and firmly believes that the 2020 election “has been stolen”.
Like many people met by AFP over the past two weeks, this octogenarian subscribes to a conspiracy thesis fueled by a far-right documentary, according to which the ballot boxes were stuffed in 2020.
“It’s starting again,” exclaimed another voter, asked to go to another polling station and who did not want to give his name.
On Twitter, Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward pointed out that “this isn’t just happening in Arizona.”
Before the ballot, lookouts, sometimes armed, watched the metal ballot boxes similar to mailboxes, where voters could deposit their ballots in advance in Arizona.
“First Arizona, now New Jersey,” tweeted Marjorie Taylor Greene, an elected Republican from Georgia known for her excesses.
