By Matthew Holloway |

A series of posts to X on Tuesday sparked a firestorm of controversy when Merissa Hamilton of Strong Communities Action-EZAZ.org made a bombshell allegation that Maricopa County Election officials were made well aware of the potential for printing and supply issues during the 2022 statewide elections. Hamilton alleged that county officials moved forward without addressing the issues, citing a series of emails detailing the Maricopa County GOP raising concerns to then-Recorder Stephen Richer and Maricopa County Board of Supervisors’ Election Manager Scott Jarrett.

The post gained national attention when it was shared by X owner and de facto head of the Department of Government Efficiency Elon Musk.

In the initial post Hamilton wrote, “Remember in 2022 when the nearly 70% of voting centers in Maricopa County failed on Election Day causing massive, long lines and voter disenfranchisement resulting in @KariLake and @AbrahamHamadeh barely losing? Maricopa County knew in advance their Election Day plan was set up for failure, and THEY LET IT FAIL!”

Hamilton noted that the emails were obtained for Strong Communities Action by The Gavel Project and civil rights activist and Arizona election attorney Ryan Heath saying, “Without his legal muscle we wouldn’t have secured it!”

In the thread that followed, Hamilton released several emails from then-Chairwoman of the Maricopa County Republican Committee Mickie Niland to Richer and Jarrett saying, “I remember hearing from Scott (Jarrett) at some point after the primary that there was a problem during the primary with some tabulators not reading correctly due to low ink. How long does it take you to get paper or ink to them if they run out? Is there a process for the voting locations to report when they are half out of paper? How far are the restocking trucks from the voting centers? Are you using the length of the lines to help you determine when more supplies are brought to the centers?“ She also asked if there was any way she could help.

Jarrett responded, “We’ve been monitoring turnout and are prepared,” adding that there was plenty of ballot paper and normal paper to print control slips as well as “sufficient toner and printer drums.”

Hamilton explained, “Several days ahead of Election Day, the Maricopa County GOP leadership warned Maricopa County that their Election Day plan would fail and disenfranchise voters. The Maricopa County BOS Election Director Scott Jarrett insisted everything would be fine saying he was ‘confident.’”

Niland, representing the Maricopa County GOP, even followed up with an email warning, “Trust is low and voting in person is the topic everyone wants to discuss with us. To us if you are basing your decisions off of history, we think things are different now.” Niland added, “Please consider this email the official raising of that flag.”

According to an investigation of the 2022 Maricopa County Election, former Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor found that “many of the Oki B432 printers were not capable of reliably printing 20-inch ballots on 100-pound paper under election-day conditions.”

McGregor added, “The combined effect of the heavy paper, longer ballot, and intermittent burst of print demand pushed the printers to perform at the very edge of or past their capability, so that any decrease in fuser performance in an individual printer could result in problems.”

Replying to the post by Musk, Hamilton thanked the X owner for “bringing attention to this vital matter!” She also raised allegations that Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas Galvin has blocked newly elected County Recorder Justin Heap from accessing “the IT staff and responsibilities assigned to him in AZ law to secure and run our elections!”

Later in the afternoon, Maricopa County published a post to X that outlined the October 2024 agreement, which demarcated the election responsibilities of the Board of Supervisors and the Recorder’s Office. Galvin shared the post as well.

Matthew Holloway is a senior reporter for AZ Free News. Follow him on X for his latest stories, or email tips to Matthew@azfreenews.com.