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Citizens concern of voter fraud grows, despite government's confidence in the election

Arizona's leadership is confident the general election will be clean, but some voters feel otherwise

Photo illustration

Photo illustration of a third party voter filling out a ballot in a classroom at the Cronkite Building on Oct. 3, 2016.


In June 2016, the FBI alerted the Arizona Secretary of State’s office that there was a breach, likely by Russians hackers, of Arizona’s election systems. Despite these hacks, the office of Michelle Reagan, Arizona’s secretary of state, is not worried about the upcoming election.

“Election tabulation equipment is completely and distinctly separate from registration," said Matt Roberts, the director of communications for the Arizona Secretary of State. "Tabulation is not online, it doesn’t touch the internet, so it can’t be manipulated and on top of that there’s safeguards upon safeguards with paper trails and audits and election equipment testing before and after the election itself to ensure that shenanigans can’t occur."

Roberts stressed that the election would remain clean and that the only concern was that a hacker could manipulate registration information.

“The only thing right now (the hack) is seemingly doing is undermining people’s confidence in the election itself and that’s obviously quite a threat to our democracy,” Roberts said.

Roberts wants the public to know that their registration information hasn’t been compromised.

“We hope that people understand that their information is safe, it continues to be safe," Roberts said. "However, we’re hyper-vigilant for any incursions into that registration database."

ASU’s Sun Devil Fitness complex will serve as a polling place for residents in the two precincts that contain Tempe ASU students this November. In an email, ASU’s media relations said that any questions about voter fraud should be directed to the Maricopa County Recorder’s office.

Whether their information has been affected or not, some people still worry about voter fraud.

Josh Burton, a Tempe resident who is a website producer at RightThisMinute, said that he hadn’t worried before this year, but does now.

“Previously, I haven’t ever worried about voter fraud," Burton said. "Now I do, especially because of all the new revelations about Russia’s shadow involvements with hacking."

He also said he worries that poll watchers may not call out suspicious people, or that if they do, the process could take hours and that it intimidates voters. Even through his worries, Burton said he does have faith in the system to catch potential voter fraud.

Joanne MacDonnell, Arizona’s Deputy Ombudsman, whose office deals with citizen complaints against the state government, said that her office wouldn’t deal with voter fraud cases because voter fraud is a complaint against the county rather than the state. Even though a complaint could potentially go against the Secretary of State, the law prohibits ombudsman from investigating individuals.

Roberts said the offices biggest concern regarding voter fraud is convincing the public that it won’t exist.

“(We’re) talking to people about the fact that the election itself is very very unlikely to be manipulated because of the way elections are held with … audits, testing, paper-trails and things of that nature,” Roberts said.

Roberts said the state was increasing its safeguards and protocols, to further prevent anyone from gaining access to the system. Roberts said that after the election they will be implementing a two-factor authentication that will require employees to prove who they are, rather than just entering a password.

“Folks should feel confident that this election this fall will be a good one, and it won’t be manipulated in anyway,” Roberts said of the general election to be held on Nov. 8.

The Maricopa County Recorder’s office did not respond for comment. 


Reach the reporter at maatenci@asu.edu or follow @mitchellatencio on Twitter.

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