I really think this is just Republicans being upset that they lost.”
That’s what drives a whole host of GOP bad actions. Whiny little shits, they are.
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I have been a pollworker for 10 years in Maricopa County, the last eight of those I have been the Inspector; that is the person who runs a given polling place.
Mr. Fontes is fantastic. He has brought transparency to an office that completely lacked it under his predecessor. He has implemented measures that have radically cut the number of provisional ballots that are voted, and made it MUCH easier to complete the paperwork associated with provisional ballots; this has resulted in a great many more ballots counted, that should be counted. He has implemented new voting technology (no, not electronic voting) that voters LOVE. He has placed voting centers throughout the county that allow voters from ANY precinct to come vote. There are printers that will print out the ballot specific to their precinct for them. This is something that his predecessor greatly screwed up in the 2016 presidential preference primary that made national news and led Fontes to entering the race and defeating her.
His predecessor was woefully behind the times and inept at implementing technology; I saw this firsthand. Her lead trainer insisted to all us pollworkers that it was really, really difficult to do polling centers because printers are not 100% reliable. And yet Mr. Fontes got it done. Every single polling place has a printer now! That printer is required to work, we can’t give any voter a ballot (nor provisional ballot) without the control slip it prints. Somehow printer technology mysteriously became 100% reliable in the last two years, how about that!
Fontes’ office has also revised procedures for us pollworkers to simplify set-up and tear-down, and as well made voting easier for curbside voters (those with a disability that makes it difficult or impossible for them to get inside a polling place) by providing a sign with a phone number the voter can call; in turn the polling place is phoned and alerted to the presence of a curbside voter. Before, we had to constantly take a look outside to look for a curbside voter! This is impossible during busy elections.
You can bet that the Arizona GOP is right now figuring out how to manufacture some sort of scandal to use against him in 2020.
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…and Shrub is never, ever going to have a second term.
If we’re going to have a Reality TV star as President then maybe we should have a Reality TV type of competition for running for office. Divide all those red and blue candidates into red and blue teams and see who organizes a backyard, or better yet block party, barbecue better. And that would be shown live on the TV and internet.
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Maricopa County welcome to the 21st century and the age of technology.
Actually since I’ve worked in customer service most of my life it sounds like to me Mr. Fontes is trying to be customer friendly, which increases participation, which Republican seem to hate.
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Gee, I wonder what the newly elected Democratic Secretary of State is going to think about this. No wonder they’re squealing.
Who’s the snowflake now? 
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Since Republicans don’t believe in allowing people to vote, this comes under the category of : Too Bad!
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At some point, the republicans have to come to terms that Donald Trump is toxic to their brand and has motivated a formally sleeping larger Democratic base to wake up and turn out to vote in record number across the nation. The phenomenon in Maricopa County was witness across the nation. Unless the republicans plan is to hire a recorder to secretly and illegally suppress or not count votes to throw the election their way, how exactly do they overcome a massive wave of motivated Democrats, when the guy at the top of their party is 100% toxic and behaving just like a lying criminal in cahoots with the Russians for self gain would behave?
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“This isn’t about being partisan…"
That is a BIG LIE.
ETA:
This is completely OT, but funny:
Trump: This is voter fraud. White Trash all in all around the World only votes for me/GOP.
What impact will the election of a Democratic secretary of state have on this…doesn’t she oversee elections statewide?
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Geezus, all the ways they tried to undermine this guy’s ability to do the job makes the GOP look guilty of something – you wonder if the Republicans haven’t been cheating all along. Perhaps Maricopa actually turned blue years ago but there was no way to know as long as the Wingnuts were in charge; counting the votes, suppressing the vote, and keeping the whole process as secret as possible.
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We should name them the Whinging Party… their lips are always moving and they’re always complaining about something.
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Whining party, lying party, traitor party, thieving party, I could go on and on.
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Purcell apologized amid a public outcry, citing cuts to state election funding.
I seem to recall that Arizona raised money by selling its capitol building then paying rent on it (typical repuke fiscal thinking).
Now their plan to sell their election results has come back and similarly bitten them on the ass.
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Oh look! We made Republicans’ jaws drop and their teeth fall out. Paul Ryan just cannot believe that the GOP lost all its seats in CA.
We just don’t like you guys. Pure and simple.
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Yes. In a general election, people can vote for whomever they want, regardless of how they’re registered. A whole lot of Republicans have appeared to be disenchanted with the current state of things, and when you know your neighbor is never going to find out who you voted for, it’s a nice cover to retain your community-approved registration while you vote for something else.
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Thank you for the report. It’s nice to have some details from those who know. Sounds like Maricopa County has the possibility of becoming known to the rest of the country for something other than Arpaio. Good for you!
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i wonder what role she plays…i would’ve thought these county issues would be overseen by the SoS
His predecessor was woefully behind the times and inept at implementing technology; I saw this firsthand. Her lead trainer insisted to all us pollworkers that it was really, really difficult to do polling centers because printers are not 100% reliable.
Right. I mean, so many things can go wrong. The ribbon can run out of ink. Or the holes in the paper can slip off the tractor sprockets, or the fan-fold paper can feed crookedly, or some of the pins in the print head can jam, or …
What’s that you say? Laser printers or inkjets? None of that new-fangled stuff here, sonny.
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