Arizona election officials in Maricopa County — the fourth most populous county in the U.S. — are apparently planning to take their sweet time tabulating the votes in the 2024 election.
Whereas elsewhere in the country and the Western world, election results are frequently tallied within hours of polls closing, Maricopa County deputy elections director Jennifer Liewer indicated at a press conference Tuesday that it could take nearly two weeks to count the votes.
“We do expect that it will take between 10 and 13 days to complete tabulation of all of the ballots that come in, but we ask for the community’s patience,” said Liewer. “We want to make sure that this is a secure process, but we also want to make sure that it is an accurate process.”
Over 2.1 million votes are expected in the county this year, where over 400,000 ballots have already been cast.
The possibility that the Arizona county could drag out the election for over a week did not sit well with some critics.
BlazeTV host Steve Deace told “Blaze News Tonight,” “I don’t know what the margins of cheating are anymore. To be fair to Maricopa County, Trump is polling way ahead of where he was the last two times he ran, and so they clearly don’t know how many votes they’re going to need to — ah, I’m sorry — count. It’s going to take a little bit longer to come up with that number.”
New York City Councilwoman Vickie Paladino noted, “There is absolutely no legitimate reason for this. None whatsoever. We are being scammed.”
Geiger Capital signaled the delay was far from normal, highlighting how in the recent Taiwanese election, where voters were required to show photo ID and use paper ballots, “It’s all done in 6 hours.”
“Taiwan has a population of ~24 million,” continued Geiger Capital. “Meaning … every US state could easily do this and count every single vote in a couple hours. We would know every state’s exact results by midnight of Election Day. No security worries, no controversies, no waiting for days or even weeks.”