ACLU documents complaints over election debacle

PHOENIX (KSAZ) - The debacle from Tuesday's election continues to grow as complaints continue to pour in.

Voters are speaking out about confusion over voter registration, some claim they registered as Republican or Democrat, others say the registration didn't come up in the voting system, and so they were forced to cast a provisional ballot. Now the American Civil Liberties Union is one of the organizations collecting complaints.

"I thought it was the worst experience in voting in all the years I've been voting," said Diana Brest.

Brest says after five hours she made it to the front; she thought she was a Republican, but she's registered as an independent so she couldn't get the Democrat or Republican ballot.

"Makes me feel like you don't want to vote, and no one cares," said Brest.

"We were shocked really by the number of complaints that have been flooding in," said Steve Kilar with the ACLU.

The ACLU is now documenting dozens of complaints from voters. The organization says some voters say the county incorrectly listed them as independents.

"People may not have had the education to know that they needed to change their registration prior to the election, or there may have been some type of clerical error on the part of the recorders office," said Kilar.

One Phoenix man's ID shows he was registered as a Democrat by the election deadline, but he says he was offered a provisional ballot and told his registration did not come in on time.

"I'm sure there are some, and we are looking at every single one of the provisionals we had which was 23,000. And I am sure we're going to find some were in fact they were registered in a party, they were eligible, and that provisional ballot will be counted," said Purcell.

For some voters more waiting to be counted in an election that has already been balled.

The State Legislature is holding a hearing about the voting problems on Monday. Arizona Secretary of State Michelle Reagan will discuss her preliminary review of the election on Monday.