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Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., speaks during a watch party on election night. Nov. 5, 2024, in Phoenix. The Associated Press on Nov. 12 declared Gallego the winner. (AP) Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., speaks during a watch party on election night. Nov. 5, 2024, in Phoenix. The Associated Press on Nov. 12 declared Gallego the winner. (AP)

Arizona Democratic Senate candidate Rep. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., speaks during a watch party on election night. Nov. 5, 2024, in Phoenix. The Associated Press on Nov. 12 declared Gallego the winner. (AP)

Jeff Cercone
By Jeff Cercone November 12, 2024

No, Arizona election officials weren’t ‘caught’ and ‘jailed’ for ballot reporting error

If Your Time is short

  • Arizona’s Pima County Elections Department had a discrepancy in two Nov. 8 reports involving the number of uncounted ballots remaining.

  • The state had a two-page ballot and, in the first of Pima’s reports issued that day, Pima mistakenly reported the number of pages counted, rather than ballots. 

  • The error was fixed in a second batch reported two hours later. No one was disciplined for the mistake.

An Arizona county's clerical error when reporting its uncounted ballots to the state led to social media allegations of fraud in a hotly contested U.S. Senate race.

The claims were made about the tight race between Democrat Ruben Gallego and Republican Kari Lake, a race The Associated Press called Nov. 12 for Gallego.

"Arizona officials caught changing ballots, have been arrested," a Nov. 9 Threads post said.

We found other social media posts making similar claims.

"SHOCK REPORT: Officials in Arizona caught changing ballot totals," a Nov. 9 Instagram post said. "Arizona election officials caught changing ballots," read another on Nov. 10.

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The accusation was widely shared on X, where one Nov. 10 post had nearly 12 million views as of Nov. 12. Conservative website The Gateway Pundit urged officials to "SEND IN THE US MARSHALLS" in a Nov. 9 article.

This Threads post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads.)

The social media claims stemmed from a Nov. 8 letter that Lake campaign attorney Jennifer Wright sent to the Pima County Elections Department demanding an explanation about a discrepancy in the number of uncounted ballots remaining in two state reports. A state report on ballot progress showed Pima County’s total of uncounted ballots rising by 14,666 on Nov. 8 in reports issued two hours apart.

Lake’s campaign also shared the letter in a Nov. 8 X post, which had nearly 500,000 views by Nov. 12.

Pima County officials said the discrepancy resulted from the wrong number being reported Nov. 8 to the secretary of state, and it was fixed two hours later.

(Screenshot from Threads)

Pima County Elections Director Constance Hargrove said in an email to PolitiFact that the social media claims are false. She said the county responded to Wright’s letter, saying the error occurred because Pima County had a two-page ballot, and the number of pages counted was mistakenly uploaded to the secretary of state’s office in the first batch reported Nov. 8 instead of the number of ballots counted. 

The error was fixed in the second batch, reported later Nov. 8, which then showed a larger number of uncounted ballots. The elections department addressed the issue in a Nov. 10 news release.

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"It was caught and corrected within a couple of hours," Hargrove said. "The report is not linked to any actual ballots."

Hargove said no one was arrested or disciplined because it was a mistake. "The actual number of ballots cast on the results did not change," she said. "What changed was the report that lists the number of ballots left to process."

PolitiFact contacted Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ office and Lake’s campaign but did not immediately hear back from either. 

The Lake campaign’s X account, as of Nov. 12, has not posted about the issue since its initial Nov. 8 post.

Our ruling

A Threads post claimed Arizona election officials were "caught" changing ballots or ballot totals in Arizona’s election results and have been arrested.

That’s not what happened. The claim stemmed from Lake’s campaign, which inquired about a discrepancy in Pima County’s uncounted ballot figures that were released over two hours Nov. 8.

Pima County’s election director said the error was clerical, was quickly fixed and didn’t affect any ballots. No one was disciplined or fired.

The claim that officials have been caught changing ballots and have been arrested is False.

Our Sources

Threads post, Nov. 9, 2024 (archived)

Instagram post, Nov. 10, 2024 (archived)

Instagram post, Nov. 9, 2024 (archived)

X post, Nov. 10, 2024 (archived)

Gateway Pundit, SEND IN THE US MARSHALS: Arizona officials caught changing the ballot totals as counting for US Senate seat continues – UPDATED, Nov. 9, 2024

Jennifer Wright, Kari Lake campaign, Letter to Daniel Jurkowitz Pima County attorney’s office, Nov. 8, 2024 

Kari Lake War Room, X post, Nov. 8, 2024

Email interview, Constance Hargrove, Pima County elections director, Nov. 11, 2024

Arizona Capitol Times, Lake attorney demands answers on Pima County ‘clerical error’, Nov. 9, 2024

Arizona secretary of state, Ballot Progress, last updated Nov. 10, 2024

Arizona secretary of state, 2024 General Election Unofficial Results, accessed Nov. 11, 2024

Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff,  X post, Nov. 9, 2024

Pima County Elections, MEDIA ALERT: Pima County passes hand count audit of 2024 election, Nov. 10, 2024

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More by Jeff Cercone

No, Arizona election officials weren’t ‘caught’ and ‘jailed’ for ballot reporting error

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