Page:Aguilera v. Fontes (CV 2020-014562) (2020) Order.pdf/3

 CV 2020-014562 Plaintiff Aguilera asserts that she was unable to successfully cast her ballot in person at the polls on 11/3/2020, Election Day. (Id. ¶ 1.2.) Aguilera testified that on Election Day, she and her husband Damian Aguilera went together to vote in person at the Sheraton Hotel at 26th Avenue and Dunlap in Phoenix. Aguilera's husband testified that he voted without incident just ahead of his wife. Aguilera testified that when she inserted her completed ballot into the tabulator machine, the tabulator screen did not light up or make any noise. Poll workers who came to assist Aguilera thought the tabulator looked as though it was ready to receive another ballot and told Aguilera she needed to vote again. When Aguilera began the process of doing so by scanning in her identification at the check-in kiosk, the kiosk indicated that she had already cast her ballot and gave her the option to cancel the ballot.

Aguilera elected to do so, but before she could proceed further, a poll worker returned and told Aguilera and the other poll worker attending Aguilera: "I just got off the phone. Her ballot's in the box. It will be counted tonight." Consequently, Aguilera was not permitted to cast a second ballot as her first ballot "was in the box" and would be counted later.

Aguilera's husband later checked the Maricopa County Recorder's website for his ballot status which, under the heading "My Ballot Status," showed a message reading "11/3/2020. You voted on Election Day. Your vote was counted." (Exh. "2".) Aguilera checked her ballot status on the website and the section under "My Ballot Status" was blank. (Id.) When asked what date she checked the website and took the screenshot that is Exhibit "2," Aguilera testified "I don't remember the date. A couple of weeks maybe. A week—I don't know. A couple of weeks ago." She had not checked the website on the day of the Hearing.

Aguilera is concerned that perhaps her ballot in fact was not processed and counted, contrary to what the poll workers told her would happen. Further, Aguilera also testified that even if her ballot was in fact counted, but was counted by a human being rather than a machine, she would not be satisfied because she has "no way of verifying that."

Plaintiff Drobina described a different scenario. Drobina acknowledges that he cast his ballot in person at the polls on Election Day at Arrowhead Town Center in Glendale, but the "tabulation machine ['tabulator'] was unable to automatically read and tabulate his ballot with perfect accuracy as the law required." (Id. ¶ 1.3.) The tabulator did not automatically accept Drobina's completed ballot the first two times he inserted it into the tabulator and therefore, he deposited his completed ballot into Tray 3 of the tabulator. Ballots from Tray 3 are processed later Docket Code 042