Officials in Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county, admitted that Runbeck Election Services “mistakenly” sent out over 3,000 ballots six days before the scheduled mailing date.
That county should sound familiar. More on that later.
The ballots went to the correct voters:
PHOENIX, Arizona — On October 2, Runbeck Election Services informed the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office that it had mistakenly mailed 3,126 early ballots the previous day, six days before the scheduled October 7 mailing date. The premature mailing was not authorized by the Recorder’s Office, which was notified only after it occurred.
Runbeck’s error affected only the timing of the mailing. The correct ballots were mailed to the correct voters.
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. Any ballots received before early voting begins will remain unopened and securely stored until processing begins.
No voters were adversely affected. Runbeck accepts responsibility for their error and will work with the MCRO to implement appropriate controls to prevent it from ever happening again.
STATEMENT ON RUNBECK EARLY BALLOT PRE-MAILING
PHOENIX, Arizona — On October 2, Runbeck Election Services informed the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office that it had mistakenly mailed 3,126 early ballots the previous day, six days before the scheduled October 7 mailing date. The… pic.twitter.com/nQMSe356lS
— Maricopa County Recorder’s Office (@RecordersOffice) October 4, 2026
“These 3,126 packets were processed separately from the primary mailing because they did not qualify for USPS automated mail processing,” Runbeck Election Services said. “Non-automation mail requires separate handling and processing before being presented to the USPS.”
Today, Runbeck Election Services (RES) issued the following statement to the media.
We requested that in the interest of transparency they also post the statement publicly; however, they refused.
The MCRO believes this is the wrong call, so we are posting it publicly for them. pic.twitter.com/CslKTPzotr
— Maricopa County Recorder’s Office (@RecordersOffice) October 4, 2026
Let’s rewind to Tuesday, November 8, 2022. The midterms.
Maricopa County got new machines after a disastrous 2020 election, but they didn’t work.
An independent investigation ended a few months after the election. From 2023:
Back in November, after the election, officials said that issues were not because of a toner, but a fuser that caused precincts to change the heat settings.
For the most part, the report confirms the initial findings as election officials used a longer ballot with heavier paper which caused certain printers to not get hot enough to transfer ink to the paper. “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,” the report read.
According to the report, the investigative team organized printers into groups depending on if the printers were in vote centers with reported problems or not.
They found in their testing that one-in-four ballots were misread due to heat fuser issues with printers when the ballot-on-demand printer was used in a way similar to how it would have been on Election Day.
A few days later, the county admitted that officials still had hundreds of thousands of ballots to count.
Then there’s 2020. I doubt we all need a refresher on that:
Trump already responded:
🚨 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.… pic.twitter.com/Du2sRoCRXG
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) October 5, 2026
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