by WorldTribune Staff, October 24, 2024 Contract With Our Readers
In Arizona, voters have until Oct. 25 to request a mail-in ballot. The deadline for mailing in a ballot is Oct. 29, though early ballots can be dropped off until the polls close on Election Day.
Then the counting begins.
And, in Maricopa County, that counting could go on for 10 to 13 days.
“We do expect that it will take between 10 and 13 days to complete tabulation of all of the ballots that come in, but we ask for the community’s patience,” NBC 12News cited Deputy Elections Director Jennifer Liewer as saying. “We want to make sure that this is a secure process, but we also want to make sure that it is an accurate process.”
The Arizona Mirror noted there are 13,572 different ballots in Maricopa County, and the average one will include 79 election contests, from the presidential race, to state legislature, to local school boards as well as judicial retention elections.
As of Tuesday, 42% of early ballots returned in Arizona have come from Republican voters, according to an analysis by Democrat strategist Sam Almy.
Democrats, meanwhile, account for 36% of the voters who already have cast ballots, while independents stand at 22%.
The ballots are sent to the company that prints the ballots, Runbeck, which then scans them for the signature verification process, as well as marking the returned ballot in the system to prevent double voting.
The physical ballots that a voter marked on are reportedly never seen by anyone at Runbeck during this process. Election workers do not get the physical ballot and affidavit envelope until the signature on the affidavit envelope is verified.
Bipartisan teams of two are supposed to ensure that every ballot and affidavit envelope are separated to ensure that the integrity of a voter’s secret ballot remains intact. If the ballot cannot be read or has an overvote — when a ballot has more votes for a race than is allowed — it is sent to adjudication.
NBC 12News reported that Maricopa is increasing election staffing and adding more high-speed tabulators while encouraging people to vote in person on Election Day rather than dropping off early ballots on Election Day.
“If I have one message for voters here today, it is this: that the longer ballots and higher interest in this 2024 general election will create longer lines on Election Day, and that’s okay,” Assistant Maricopa County Manager Zach Schira said. “But if you want to save time and you want to avoid those lines vote early, either in person or by mail, that’ll save you time, and it’ll help us report more results on election night.”
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Maricopa County, AZ warns 10-13 days will be needed to count the votes added by Editor Two on October 24, 2024
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