Sasha Hupka
Arizona Republic
View Comments
As a group of poll workers — two Democrats and one Republican — were leaving a voting center in Sun City on the evening of Nov. 1, 2022, they encountered a voter in the parking lot.
The dark-haired man, 5-foot-8 and about 160 pounds, was holding two ballots and walking toward the polling place.
When the group told him it was closed, he quickly became irate.
“The voter indicated that he was going to try to vote anyway and began ‘charging’ toward the door,” according to a report on the encounter filed by Annarose Lilly, a Democrat and the voting location’s head poll worker.
Another worker “walked toward the voter and told him the poll was closed. At that point, the voter started cussing. … The voter continued to become agitated and said that we ‘liberals’ allow a lot of fake ballots.”
The Sun City incident is one of 66 politically charged disruptions and conflicts between poll workers, election observers and voters during last year’s general election reported to officials in Maricopa County.
Goldenrod forms from Maricopa County polling locations.
Elections professionals nationwide continue to face intense scrutiny after unfounded allegations of widespread fraud surfaced during the 2020 presidential race. In Arizona, local elections officials have seen an onslaught of threats that have driven some from their jobs. They have long warned that conspiracy theories spread by some Republican officials and candidates could manifest in conflicts at the polls.
Reports made by poll workers and voters during the 2022 election show some of those predictions have become reality. Election officials are concerned about how they’ll keep poll workers safe — and what effect increased hostility at the polls will have on voter turnout, poll workers and polling sites.
The reports, called “goldenrod forms” because of the color of the paper they are written on, are filled out by poll workers — and sometimes observers and voters — to make notes and document problems at polling sites. They offer an insider’s view into the challenges and experiences of election workers in the state’s largest county on Election Day. The Sun City report was dated Nov. 1, during early in-person voting, but most were written on Election Day.
