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

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.

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.

Featured Fact-check

Facebook posts

stated on November 22, 2024 in a Facebook post

Celebrities including Bruce Springsteen, Robert De Niro, Robert Downey Jr., John Legend and Tom Hanks have announced they are leaving the U.S. following the 2024 election.

(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.

"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.

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.