A voter places a ballot in a drop box outside of the Maricopa County Elections Department on Aug. 2, 2022, in Phoenix. Photo by Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Maricopa County is expecting about three in 10 voters to cast ballots in the July 30 primary election, with about 10% of voters showing up at polling sites to cast their ballots on Election Day.
Voting has been happening since June 15, when overseas and military voters began receiving their ballots; early voting began for local voters on July 3.
Maricopa County officials spoke to the press and the public Tuesday afternoon to discuss what to expect in the coming days as votes are tabulated and on Election Day.
“It’s very important that everybody understands that me and my colleagues on the board are committed to safe, secure and transparent elections,” Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said.
SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
The press conference came on the final day for voters to mail their early ballots. Anyone with an early ballot after today is advised to drop their ballot off at a drop box by 7 p.m. on Election Day.
One of the overarching themes among questions posed by the press and in comments made by members of Maricopa County was safety in the light of increased political violence, notably the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump earlier this month.
Gates and others stressed that they have been working with local and federal law enforcement officials to ensure voter and election worker safety. The officials would not say if the county has received any threats that would put them on a higher alert.
County officials also stressed the importance of voters using official sources for information regarding the election and touted the 223 vote centers that will be open on Election Day.
Any registered voter in the state, regardless of political party or lack thereof, is eligible to vote in the primary election. Voters need to bring a government issued ID or one of the other forms of ID that the county accepts .
Voters can also get information on where they can vote at Locations.Maricopa.Vote , which shows all polling locations — including wait times at each — and drop boxes.
The total expected turnout is expected to be between 718,000 and 894,000 voters, or about 30% of total eligible voters. By the close of business Monday, the county had already tabulated more than 211,000 early ballots.
Election results won’t be released until 8 p.m. on July 30; the first tallies will be early ballots dropped off prior to Election Day. Vote centers will also be tabulating on-site with bipartisan teams handling the data and taking it to central tabulation once complete.
Voters can find additional information on the vote counting process as well as election results at CountingBallots.Maricopa.Vote .
Assistant County Manager Zach Schira said the county has invested $15 million in new money this election cycle.
“We are well tested, well trained and well prepared,” Schira said. However, he also tempered expectations, saying that “there is still no such thing as a perfect election.”
During the 2022 elections, the county faced printer issues, which caused delays at some vote centers leading to long lines and leading some to make spurious claims of voter manipulation.
Additionally, last week, voters faced some issues during a global outage of the IT system CrowdStrike , which led to some early voting sites encountering issues. However, the county stressed that no voters were turned away and they were still able to vote.
Officials also said that they’d respond when appropriate to a letter by the Republican National Committee and the Arizona Republican Party asking questions on how the outage impacted voters.
As for the printers, the county has replaced all the printers that created the problem and have “thoroughly stress tested” the new ones, according to Scott Jarrett, director of elections for Maricopa County.
DONATE: SUPPORT NEWS YOU TRUST
Most Popular
Comments / 0