Trump criticizes election officials in Arizona’s Maricopa County over error affecting 3,000 ballots

PHOENIX (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday criticized election officials in Arizona's Maricopa County after about 3,000 ballots were mistakenly mailed early to voters.

The miscue, blamed on a vendor error, would have no effect on the voters who received the ballots, the county recorder's office said. Maricopa County has about 2.5 million registered voters.

The president was responding to a reporter’s question when he said Maricopa, the most populous county in the battleground state and home to Phoenix, should “be ashamed of themselves.”

“Now they’re saying it was an error,” Trump said. “Maricopa is a very, very dishonest county.”

The president , as he typically does ahead of an election , has been ramping up his rhetoric around voting as Election Day draws near in this year's midterm elections, with control of Congress at stake.

His latest comments referred to a vendor error that came to light over the weekend. The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office, which is run by Republican Recorder Justin Heap , said Sunday that Runbeck Election Services told the office that it “mistakenly mailed 3,126 early ballots the previous day,” six days before they were scheduled to be sent to voters for this year's midterm elections.

Runbeck said the ballots were “processed separately from the primary mailing” because they did not qualify for automated mail processing from the U.S. Postal Service. The pallet containing the ballots was “included with mail released that evening,” which resulted in them reaching the Postal Service six days early, the company said.

The ballots were mailed to the correct voters, are still valid and can be completed and returned normally by those voters, the recorder’s office said in a statement.

Judy Keane, a spokesperson for the recorder's office, did not offer a response to the president’s comments and referred to statements issued by her office and Runbeck.

Jeff Ellington, president and CEO of Runbeck Election Services, said Monday that Maricopa County was not at fault in the snafu.

“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 is crucial for deciding statewide races in Arizona, has been a regular target of election conspiracy theories . Trump has frequently focused false claims of a stolen election in 2020 on the county.

Heap and the Republican-controlled county of board of supervisors had been entangled for months in a prolonged legal battle over how to jointly run elections. Heap and the board eventually reached a settlement in July.