JEROD MACDONALD-EVOY
Arizona Mirror
Two Republican state lawmakers questioned former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Ruth McGregor on Thursday about an independent investigation she did into Maricopa County’s ballot printer issues during the 2022 general election.
McGregor’s report, released earlier this year, determined that the Oki printers the county used malfunctioned because the ballots were larger and printed on heavier paper than in past elections. The investigation was prompted by an Election Day that was marred by long delays after the printer errors meant thousands of ballots couldn’t be read by polling location ballot tabulators.
Although all of the ballots affected were ultimately counted by different machines at the county’s election headquarters, the printer malfunction and resulting chaos on Election Day created a new swath of conspiracy theories around Maricopa County’s handling of elections.
McGregor, who was hired by the county to lead the investigation, gave the House Ad Hoc Committee on Oversight, Accountability and Big Tech a lengthy rundown on how her team conducted its work and their key findings. The committee is chaired by Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, a lawyer known for bringing cases alleging election fraud and defending those who spread baseless conspiracy theories.
Kolodin has been sanctioned for several of those cases.
“They were not what I would call pervasive,” McGregor said about the printer issue discovered by her and her team. Her report indicated that the Oki printers were not able to maintain the heat needed to print ballots correctly, which caused affected ballots to be rejected by the on-site tabulators.
