Municipalities across the country trying to meet the demands of collecting and tabulating election ballots with their set workforce have resorted to hiring temporary workers, which has contributed to election irregularities and security concerns.
Such issues surfaced last month in Arizona’s Maricopa County and have been seen in other county or city governments including Detroit, Florida’s Orange County and Georgia’s Fulton County over the prior two election cycles.
And as the November presidential election approaches, some municipalities will hire hundreds – even thousands – of temporary election workers.
Maricopa County 2024:
A Maricopa County temporary election worker was arrested last month for allegedly stealing from the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center.
Walter Ringfield, Jr., 27, was booked on charges of theft and criminal damage for allegedly stealing a security fob and keys from the center. The fob is used to gain access to ballot tabulators, as workers hold it to the machines and then enter a password, according to Votebeat.
MCTEC released a statement to ABC15 on the alleged theft, saying, “[W]hen completing a daily inventory, Maricopa County elections workers identified that an item was taken from the Ballot Tabulation Center on Thursday evening, and staff took immediate action to investigate the matter and contacted the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office.
“The stolen item has been recovered, but to ensure the integrity of Maricopa County Elections, election workers are reprogramming and re-conducting logic and accuracy testing of all equipment.”
The reprogramming cost the county around $20,000.
