Law broken when voters went unidentified

CHANDLER, AZ - Millions took to the polls on Tuesday, but not everything went smoothly.

As the results were coming in, calls were also coming to ABC 15 and the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office over problems voting. Some voters were never identified, but still were allowed to vote.

Chad Bilbrey takes the election process very seriously. He has voted every chance available to him over the past 18 years. Bilbrey says the experience usually goes fine, but he had a major issue on Tuesday.

"I didn't get ID'd this time. I wasn't asked for any identification," he said.

Bilbrey says an essential step of election security was overlooked when he went to the polls in Chandler. Concerned, he contacted the County Recorder’s Office and notified them of the problem immediately.

Arizona state law requires that all voters have an acceptable form of identification with them at the time they vote. The law is meant to prevent voter fraud and other possibly illegal activity.

"You hear of people, like the dead voting in Chicago; stuff like that,” Bilbrey said. “That would be easy to do if you knew someone wasn't voting and you knew what precinct they were in. You could easily go in there and say you were that person if you knew you weren't going to be ID'd."

"It is an issue,” Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell admitted. “It's one of the things we passed into law and it is a state law that you do have to show identification."

Purcell oversees the election process for the entire county. She says Bilbrey 's report of unchecked identification was one of several that came in on Tuesday. Purcell acknowledged the criminal risk of the slip ups, but said they were likely not the case of any funny business or voter fraud.

"No, I think that it's more that we have 7,800 workers out there in the polling places on Election Day,” Purcell said. “It's probably just that they didn't do it, they didn't have time to do it, or they just forgot that they were supposed to do it.”

If you noticed any issues with identification not being shown, problems with the staff or technical problems with the equipment at the polling centers the County Recorder's Office wants to know about it.

The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office can be reached at 602-506-3535 or online at http://recorder.maricopa.gov/web/contactus.aspx