When it comes to running elections, Maricopa County, Arizona, is often at the top of the list — of failure.
In 2022, Election Day printers failed at dozens of vote centers because the county used longer 20-inch ballots on too-heavy 100-pound paper, there are regular internal fights between the recorder and county supervisors over basic procedures, and, as our Rusty Weiss reported in August, a hacker was able to obtain 633,000 voter records in 2020. (See: Bombshell: Hacker Admitted to 2020 AZ Voter Data Theft, Destroyed Evidence — Prosecutors Did Nothing.)
The failures keep on coming, and on Sunday, the County Recorder’s office revealed that thousands of ballots had been mailed out early:
An estimated 3,216 [actually 3,126] early ballots were "mistakenly" mailed six days ahead of the scheduled Oct. 7 mailing date, according to the Maricopa County Recorder's Office.
The county agency blamed the "error" on the vendor Runbeck Election Services, but indicated the ballots were correctly mailed to the right voters.
Despite the “mistake,” the office said the ballots were printed correctly, and voters could still use them. Ballots received before the early voting window officially opens will be “stored.”
What could go wrong?
"Upon consultation with the Maricopa County Attorney's Office, it was determined that the ballots remain valid and do not need to be voided or reissued. Voters may complete and return them normally," the recorder's office wrote in a statement.
President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters outside the White House Monday, noted that these things always seem to benefit one political party over the other:
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just RIPPED Maricopa County, AZ for sending out THOUSANDS of ballots in "error" before early voting even began "Maricopa is a very, VERY dishonest county." "They should be ASHAMED of themselves" It wasn't an "error" -- they simply got CAUGHT. Besides, these "errors" practically ALWAYS benefit only ONE side 🤔
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 5, 2026
🚨 BREAKING: President Trump just RIPPED Maricopa County, AZ for sending out THOUSANDS of ballots in "error" before early voting even began
"Maricopa is a very, VERY dishonest county."
"They should be ASHAMED of themselves"
It wasn't an "error" -- they simply got CAUGHT. Besides, these "errors" practically ALWAYS benefit only ONE side 🤔
Runbeck has handled ballot printing and processing for Maricopa County for around two decades. How could they make such a basic mistake? Maybe it’s harmless on its own, but what’s concerning is that it’s part of a pattern, one that Senior Advisor at the U.S. Agency for Global Media and Trump’s nominee for ambassador to Jamaica Kari Lake warned about for years during her unsuccessful Senate and gubernatorial campaigns in the Grand Canyon State.
Rep. Abe Hamadeh (AZ-8) also noted that something always seems to smell rotten in Maricopa:
Maricopa says Runbeck "mistakenly" mailed 3,126 ballots six days early. This isn't their first "mistake." One error is incompetence. A pattern is a system. Runbeck touches tens of millions of ballots, and Maricopa inexplicably keeps handing them the keys. https://t.co/HlW2O2WBf7
— Office of Congressman Abe Hamadeh (@RepAbeHamadeh) October 5, 2026
Apparently, Maricopa is just going to keep on Maricopa-ing until Arizona gets a Republican governor or some competent election officials. We can be assured that Democrat Gov. Katie Hobbs won't lift a finger to ensure elections are run competently.