Global IT Meltdown Halts Early Voting in Arizona

By Staff Reporter |

A global IT outage on Thursday night severely disrupted Arizona’s early voting operations on Friday.

Arizona’s three largest counties—Maricopa, Pima, and Pinal—were notably affected. These counties make up more than 80% of the state’s population.

In Maricopa County, some vote centers faced non-functional check-in systems. An elections department spokesperson explained the equipment’s reliance on network connections for voter check-ins and ballot casting.

Initially, only a few vote centers in Maricopa County were open, but this number increased to 14 by the afternoon.

The outage also hindered Pima County’s online mail-in ballot request system. Consequently, election workers had to issue provisional ballots, limiting early voting.

Important Update: Due to global internet outage, voting services are limited. Please note, provisional ballots will be issued until further notice. pic.twitter.com/F2cKC1LePM

— Pima County Recorder’s Office (@PimaRecorder) July 19, 2024

Pinal County managed to restore early voting hours after the incident.

Early Voting in Pinal County is OPEN today, July 19, 2024

Last night, our Endpoint Detection and Response Software, CrowdStrike, caused a global outage affecting Windows systems worldwide, including those at Pinal County.

— Pinal County VOTES (@PinalVotes) July 19, 2024

Employee computers and server technologies unrelated to election operations were also impacted across Arizona.

The outage was traced to a defect in a content update by CrowdStrike, a Texas-based software company. This defect affected Windows systems but spared Mac and Linux hosts. CrowdStrike confirmed it wasn’t due to a cyber attack or security breach, releasing a fix within hours.

CrowdStrike is actively working with customers impacted by a defect found in a single content update for Windows hosts. Mac and Linux hosts are not impacted. This is not a security incident or cyberattack. The issue has been identified, isolated and a fix has been deployed. We…

— George Kurtz (@George_Kurtz) July 19, 2024

Microsoft, which uses CrowdStrike’s software, reported a full recovery of affected services after 16 hours.

We’re investigating an issue impacting users’ ability to access various Microsoft 365 apps and services. More info posted in the admin center under MO821132 and on https://t.co/W5Y8dAkjMk

— Microsoft 365 Status (@MSFT365Status) July 18, 2024

Secretary of State Adrian Fontes assured that the voter registration system remained secure and operational. He emphasized that the closed, air-gapped tabulation networks were unaffected, and agency computers for verifying petition signatures had full access restored.

“The current global outage is affecting systems worldwide and is not specific to elections or Arizona,” Fontes stated, clarifying that vote counting was unimpacted.

The outage affected not only Arizona’s voting operations but also various government agencies and private businesses, including airports, airlines, banks, broadcasters, emergency 911 call centers, and hospitals.

Airlines like United, American, Delta, and Allegiant faced groundings at Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. Southwest Airlines was unaffected, operating on an outdated Windows 3.1 system.

Cochise County didn’t report election-related issues but did confirm disruptions to their 911 dispatch and sheriff’s department requiring IT team intervention. The Phoenix Police Department similarly faced challenges with its computerized 911 dispatch center.