Arizona’s Maricopa County announced an investigation Friday into problems that plagued the 2022 election.

Former Arizona Supreme Court Justice Ruth McGregor agreed to lead the “independent” endeavor, county officials said in a statement. McGregor was a member of the state Supreme Court from 1998 to 2009 and participated in a 2019 investigation into security issues at Arizona’s prisons.

McGregor will hire a team of “independent experts to find out why the printers that read ballots well in the August Primary had trouble reading some ballots while using the same settings in the November General,” Maricopa Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates and Vice Chairman Clint Hickman said in their statement. “Our voters deserve nothing less.”

NEW: Former AZ Supreme Court Chief Justice Ruth McGregor will lead independent investigation into Election Day printer issues. We look forward to her findings. Statement ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/mOhkWideou

— Maricopa County (@maricopacounty) January 6, 2023

After Maricopa County, which includes the capital of Phoenix and is Arizona’s most populous county, became an epicenter of voter integrity issues stemming from the 2020 presidential election, it again faced controversy in last year’s November 8 contest when tabulators in roughly 70 of 223 voting centers reportedly had trouble reading ballots. The problems were attributed to printers that failed to produce sufficiently dark “timing marks” to inform scanners of voter information, according to the Associated Press.

In response to a November request for information from Arizona’s then-Attorney General Mark Brnovich, Maricopa County said affected residents were offered alternative ways to vote and insisted the printer glitches did not prevent anyone from casting ballots. Still, some candidates have raised concerns.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake sued after the results showed that she lost her November contest to then-Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs (D) by roughly 17,000 votes. Lake claimed election officials worked to disenfranchise voters and alleged “hundreds of thousands of illegal ballots infected the election in Maricopa County.” A judge rejected the lawsuit, which included a claim of intentional misconduct related to malfunctioning ballot printers, but Lake is appealing.

Abe Hamadeh, the Republican in the race for Arizona attorney general who is also going to court to fight his November defeat, responded to the investigation news Friday, tweeting, “Maricopa County, Pinal County, what else? Democracy demands answers.”

Hobbs and others who were declared the winners of their respective contests were sworn into office this week.

Mexico’s most visited archaeological site, Chichen Itza, was left empty as protesters blocked roads to the site on Thursday, the fourth day of protests.

Indigenous vendors spearheading the protests have blocked major roadways for entry, leaving roads jammed with buses and cars while the archaeological site has been eerily deserted, Semafor reported. Chichen Itza receives 2.5 million visitors per year, according to its website. However, video shows the tourist hotspot completely empty even though it is officially open.

#DYinforma Sin turistas ni comerciantes en Chichén Itzá. 👇 "Ese grupo no está dejando pasar a nadie", reportó el director de la zona arqueológica Marco Antonio Santos Ramírez. El sitio está abierto al público, pero como no dejan pasar a nadie, no hay gente, confirmó. pic.twitter.com/ugOnKuyXJw

— Diario de Yucatán (@DiariodeYucatan) January 5, 2023

#DYinforma Bloquean el acceso a la zona arqueológica de Chichén Itzá y el paso en la carretera federal. ⚠️ Ejidatarios, artesanos y guías de turistas, se unieron para la manifestación. pic.twitter.com/62G5nmmooQ

— Diario de Yucatán (@DiariodeYucatan) January 2, 2023

Local media reported that Indigenous vendors are demanding the director of the Chichen Itza archeological zone, Antonio Santos Ramírez, to step down. They allege that Santos Ramírez limits the number of handicraft stalls allowed on the Indigenous grounds while prohibiting vendors from speaking the Mayan language. Protesters also allege that the director has banned local farmers from using their land for tourist parking and that he enforces these policies using the National Guard.

We are not allowed into Chichen-itza today. Mayan people are protesting injustice and mistreatment. @uninoticias @UnivisionNews @univision #chichen-itza #Planton pic.twitter.com/xgveRRaAC6

— Leticia Perez (@PerezLeti777) January 2, 2023

An activist named Arturo Ciau Puc, with the local farm group known as CIOAC, told Semafor that the director and the National Institute of Anthropology and History, the Mexican agency that oversees historical sites, do not fully understand the current hardships of indigenous Mexicans, according to Semafor. “How does he expect us and the farmers to survive?” Ciau Puc asks. “There’s no economy for us with these restrictions.”

According to local news site Diario de Yucatán, Santos Ramírez denies the allegations. He refuses to step down, saying, “The accusations are a slander, a lie and it is a political flag of that group, nothing more to argue something that has no basis or foundation.”

Santos Ramírez also says that the limitations on vendor stalls are to reduce child labor on the archaeological site.

Chichen Itza has a total of 26 Mayan Ruins on the site, and the most notable Mayan Ruin is the Chichen Itza Pyramid or El Castillo. The site is located on the Yucatán peninsula of Mexico and has an area of about four square miles.

Settlers first arrived at the site around 550 AD and it remained active for about a thousand years; it is believed that the site was abandoned by the time the Spanish arrived. Thought to be home to 35,000 people at its peak, Chichen Itza was a religious, political, military, and economic hub for the Mayan people.