PHOENIX, Arizona — U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday, October 5, criticized election administrators in Arizona’s Maricopa County following an incident in which roughly 3,000 early ballots were dispatched to voters ahead of schedule.
Addressing reporters, Trump targeted the state’s most populous county—a vital battleground covering the Phoenix area—stating that local officials should “be ashamed of themselves.”
”Now they’re saying it was an error,” Trump said. “Maricopa is a very, very dishonest county.”
The President’s comments come amid heightened focus on voting procedures leading up to the upcoming midterm elections, which will determine control of the U.S. Congress.
The discrepancy emerged over the weekend when the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office revealed that election vendor Runbeck Election Services had inadvertently sent out 3,126 early ballots six days prior to the official mailing date.
According to Runbeck, the affected ballots required manual handling due to USPS automated processing limitations, and a pallet containing the mail was mistakenly released alongside an evening shipment.
The recorder’s office confirmed that the ballots reached their intended recipients, remain entirely valid, and may be completed and returned through standard channels.
Judy Keane, a spokesperson for the recorder’s office, declined to address the President’s statements directly, referring instead to official press releases issued by the county and the vendor.
Runbeck Election Services President and CEO Jeff Ellington clarified on Monday that county officials bore no responsibility for the oversight.
”It was pure accident, just a human error,” Ellington said in an interview. “We regret it. But it was by no means intentional.”
Maricopa County, which serves as a pivotal swing area in Arizona elections, has frequently been at the epicenter of voting disputes and false claims surrounding the 2020 election.
The incident also follows a monthslong administrative dispute between Republican Recorder Justin Heap and the GOP-controlled Board of Supervisors, which was resolved via a legal settlement in July.