Trump criticizes election officials in Arizona’s Maricopa County over error

President Donald Trump on Monday lashed out at election officials in Maricopa County, Arizona, after roughly 3,000 ballots for the midterm elections went out to voters ahead of schedule. He said the county, the state's most populous and home to Phoenix, should "be ashamed of themselves." Trump has stepped up his rhetoric on voting as the midterms approach, with control of Congress at stake, according to ABC News.

The early mailing was the fault of a vendor, Runbeck Election Services, which told the county recorder's office that 3,126 ballots were sent six days before their planned date. Runbeck explained that these ballots could not go through automated U.S. Postal Service processing, so they were handled apart from the main mailing, and a pallet of them was mistakenly included with mail released that evening. The recorder's office, run by Republican Justin Heap, said the ballots reached the right voters, remain valid and can be returned normally. Runbeck's president and CEO, Jeff Ellington, said the county bore no blame and called it human error, not intentional. Maricopa County has long been a focus of election conspiracy theories, including Trump's false claims about 2020.

Summarized by PolitiKool from ABC News’s reporting. Read the full story at ABC News →