Key Points:

• Election trust still on shaky ground despite less tension, no litigation  in 2024

• Former elected official tours tabulation center to spread word of reliable elections

• Former and current election officials see trust challenges ahead 

Election trust remains a moving target, despite a less explosive aftermath in 2024, leaving election officials and outside parties on an eternal path to disseminate voter information and dispel misinformation. 

In contrast to 2020 and 2022, the 2024 election left few claims of fraud and no election challenges in its wake. But more than a year out from another major election, those working in and watching the electoral system do not believe more latent voter distrust means it disappeared entirely. 

As part of ongoing education efforts, RightCount, a nonprofit aimed at educating and assuring voters of the electoral systems’ integrity, sent its board members – including former Governor and Secretary of State Jan Brewer, former Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell and former Congressman Matt Salmon – to tour the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center on July 29, led by election director Scott Jarrett. 

Jarrett ran through the fast facts as part of Tour Tuesdays, a weekly offering by the county to show any interested parties the inner workings of elections up close and personal. 

He reminded members of RightCount – some former elections officials themselves – of Maricopa County’s position as the third most populous voting district, centrally located in a swing state and intersecting eight of the nine congressional districts and 22 of the 30 legislative districts.

Jarrett ran through the mechanics of creating, printing, sending out and tabulating ballots on Election Day and beyond in continuously high turnout elections, with rates hovering at about 80% in 2020 and 2024. 

And, Jarrett acknowledged the stopgaps, the failsafes, the steps taken by the office to shield election data from tampering, to ensure all ballots are counted, to assure voters of a solid outcome. 

Though more than a year out from the 2026 general election and coasting in the wake of a far less-contentious 2024 election, Jarrett said he expects continued challenges to public trust to continue.  

“I’d say right now, we’re not hearing at the same level the distrust in elections. I’d say a large part of that is due probably to the results of the last election,” Jarrett said.
“I think we’re going to continue to have issues, and I think this is going to be on all sides of the election, with distrust if they don’t like the outcomes.” 

And in some ways, distrust is already popping up.

Kari Lake, former gubernatorial and Senate candidate, who kept steadfast in her claims of a stolen or sabotaged election after her failed run for governor, continues to use her platforms to call for investigations into election fraud, prosecutions for alleged past crimes. 

She recirculated a video from 2022 of the Maricopa County Tabulation Center claiming election workers of “illegally breaking into sealed election machines” and reprogramming them. 

Mark Finchem, an acolyte of the same election skepticism, posted on X that he was “right about the stolen election,” and linked to an article in which Donald Trump called for another look at the 2020 election via special prosecutor. 

Jarrett noted the county’s ongoing effort to keep correct information at the forefront. 

“And as much as we offer these tours and publicize these tours and inform voters of our website, we just don’t compete with the platform that others may have. May have distrust or a reason for why they want to institute distrust in elections,” Jarrett said. 

RightCount has an eye on the same goal of voter education. 

Brewer said the last time she had been to the tabulation center was during her tenure on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.  She recalled her time overseeing state elections, too, as secretary of state. 

“I am just impressed with the staff, the equipment and leadership here,” Brewer said. “I have no doubt that our elections are honest and they turn out the right data.” 

As far as the current temperature on voter trust and future work to extend her own sentiment, Brewer said she believed there will always be doubters.

“They don’t understand the elections, and they might repeat something that somebody else has said to them,” Brewer said. “Unfortunately, I think a lot of this rhetoric sometimes is for people to be able to go out there and get a reaction from the public as they campaign. They want that reaction. They’ve got to talk about it so they get fired up, rather than going out there and saying how wonderful it is.” 

As for RightCount, Brewer said she planned to continue to work with her fellow board members to “explain to people what we have known and learned about elections in our time.”

“It works,” Brewer said. “Checking our democracy. And as a prior candidate, and the candidates today, they want to be sure that it works. So they should begin everyday learning more and more about it.”