Increased police efforts to ensure the safety of election workers

Both parties check vote counting to avoid cheating

PHOENIX, ARIZONA. Tyler Kinnerup covered the 2020 presidential election as a reporter at a local radio station in Phoenix.

Now she shows us around the state’s election center as press secretary.

– Those who want to create a sense of chaos around the elections seem to be drawn to Arizona, she says.

Show more

chevron-down

Although it will be more difficult this time. A substantial fence has been built around the building where the ballots are transported, examined and counted. It is located in what feels like an industrial area on the edge of downtown.

To drive into the parking lot, you have to pass a barrier. All pedestrians must pass through a large gate where you register at an intercom. Those sitting at the reception see us via a camera.

We are ticked off a list of pre-registrants before we are admitted. For others, the gate remains closed.

Once inside the building, metal detectors await. We get a temporary visitor card and are met by Tyler Kinnerup.

She takes us around the building.

The vote-counting machines are at a standstill because there are still two weeks left until the primaries. Via large windows, you can observe the count from a conference room. Then there are also always a number of teams in place from both the Democrats and the Republicans to make sure the count is done correctly.

80 percent vote by mail

Tyler points to a glass cage at the bottom of the large room. There are the hard drives where all vote count information is stored.

– Only three people have access there and no one is allowed to stay there alone.

We move on to the room where the ballots are reviewed once they come in. There is already feverish activity here.

– About 80 percent of the population votes by mail, so even when there are still more than three weeks left until the actual election day, the ballots start rolling in.

Maricopa County is the second largest electoral district in the entire United States with 2.3 million registered voters. Advance voting makes it faster to handle and count all ballots.

As Arizona only uses paper ballots, it is easy to check afterwards if the margin is less than 0.5 percent between the candidates.

About 50 people open the ballot envelopes and examine the ballots in the large rectangular room. They sit two and two opposite each other at white tables. Everyone has a colored band around their neck. Red means the poll worker is a Republican. Blue that he is a Democrat. Those who registered as independent election workers wear a yellow ribbon.

– Here the ballots are checked to make sure there are no damages or marks that cast doubt on who the voter actually voted for.

Signatures are accepted

She picks up a green envelope from a plastic tray and shows where the voter must write their signature and phone number. All ballots are printed for a named voter.

– If there is any doubt about the voter’s intention, we can call the person.

A woman stands a little to the side of the tables. She is an observer from one of the parties. They have the right to send such to review the process.

Tyler Kinnerup must use his access card to enter the next room. Here, the voter signatures that the machines did not approve are reviewed. Those who work here are not allowed to physically handle the ballots. They are scanned on a screen. Each signature must be approved by two people, one Democrat and one Republican.

“As open as possible”

On the opposite wall hang examples of how people’s signatures change with age and with illness.

– Maybe someone was in a hurry and signed their ballot on the back of the kids’ backpack so that’s why the signature looks different than the one stored from when the voter registered.

According to Tyler Kinnerup, it is very unusual to receive ballot papers where the signature turns out to be forged.

How anyone in this controlled environment could engage in electoral fraud is a mystery. Nevertheless, Republicans continue to claim that widespread voter fraud occurred in both the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 midterm elections. They warn that similar voter fraud will occur in November.

– The only thing we can do is to be as open as possible by showing how the process works and all the security arrangements that exist so that no false votes are approved, says Tyler Kinnerup.

FBI on scene

On election day, there will be local police and the FBI on site to ensure that no unauthorized persons attempt to enter the premises and interfere with the vote count. And to guarantee the safety of the election workers.

– Nobody knows what will happen, but I still don’t think it will be as crazy this time, says Tyler, who remembers the loud and sometimes violent protests she reported from 2020.

One of the most noticeable was the man in the Viking helmet equipped with a spear. The same person who was later arrested when he was one of those who led the storming of the Capitol.

Jacob Chansley, also known as the QAnon shaman, is from Arizona and was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison for his role in the storming. He served just over two years before being released last year.