How the nation's biggest battleground county is trying to quash election conspiracy theories

PHOENIX — Maricopa County has been at the center of election conspiracy theories and denial of results in each of the last two elections. Now, the team running the vote is seeing how much a big effort to increase transparency and explanation around their procedures can help.

In 2020, the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center saw hundreds of pro-Trump protesters, some armed, gather outside the facility in the days after the election, arguing without evidence that the election was being stolen from then-President Donald Trump.

In 2022, Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake fueled another round of election conspiracy theory claims after dozens of vote tabulation machines malfunctioned, causing delays.

And in 2024, the latest wave of election denialism was already brewing even before primary day Tuesday.

The onslaught of misinformation, disinformation and noise surrounding elections in Maricopa County — where more than 2 million people cast ballots in 2020 in one of the closest states in the country — prompted county election officials to take steps to increase transparency at the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center. Maricopa has also invested some $15 million in new equipment in a bid to deliver results quicker and tamp down the skepticism associated with its results.

One of the steps taken by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors in an effort to increase transparency is to add more surveillance cameras at the tabulation center, allowing Arizonans to monitor proceedings from home. The new batch of cameras brings the total to more than 20, including surveillance at drop-box locations, seven different angles at the tabulation center, and four different angles where ballot processing — verifying