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Report On Election Day Problems Will Not Be Released

David Wallace/The Republic

Maricopa County's top election official has backed out of his promise to release a report that answers questions about Election Day problems.

Recorder Adrian Fontes had promised during a Tuesday Facebook live video that he would share the report's findings with the public by Thursday, The Arizona Republic reported .

Attorneys for his office encouraged him not to release the report, he said.

Instead, Fontes is turning it over to county auditors who are reviewing the issues that came up during the Aug. 28 elections, when 62 polling locations failed to open on time.

An investigation by the Republic found that the mishaps impacted 95 precincts and thousands of voters.

Other issues that were reported include workers who felt unprepared for their roles, voters receiving incorrect ballots and other concerns about the security of ballots.

On Wednesday, Fontes put some of the blame on an information technology contractor that he said didn't provide support for the voter check-in equipment. The contractor denies the contention.

The recorder's office has yet to comply with a week-old public-records request for the office's contract with the contractor and other communication between the parties.

In the video, Fontes said he wouldn't take questions from the media because he wanted to wait until he had enough information to provide a complete answer.

He also stated that he would prefer to talk to voters directly through methods such as Facebook live and the report he planned to release.

"We're not going to worry about headlines. We're going to worry about getting you the information directly from us so that we can continue to be transparent, which we have been since I got elected," he said.

Fontes, a Democrat, previously unseated longtime recorder, Republican Helen Purcell, over her handling of the 2016 presidential primary election, when she drastically reduced the number of polling sites, resulting in long lines.

The Phoenix-area county is paying external auditors $200,000 to assist the county's audit team in reviewing what went wrong on election day.

Auditors will suggest fixes to resolve the issues in time for the November general election.