MARICOPA COUNTY, Ariz. — The election is two weeks away and all eyes are on Arizona with anticipated tight races across the board.
In Maricopa County, election officials are asking for patience as votes are tabulated — which could take 10 to 13 days because of the longer-than-typical ballots and the high interest in this year's election, Deputy Elections Director Jennifer Liewer said.
"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," Liewer said. "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 higher interest in the 2024 election and the fact that the ballot is two pages — an average of 79 contests per ballot — is exactly why officials are encouraging people to vote early, Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said.
More than 2.1 million votes are expected this year and so far, 400,000 people have cast their ballots in Maricopa County.
"We are seeing a little bit of a lag of where we were in 2020 but the last few days we've actually seen an uptick in turnout," Scott Jarrett, Maricopa County elections director, said. "So I am expecting that we will start approaching very close to those 2020 numbers."
Election officials are increasing staffing, adding more high-speed tabulators and encouraging people to vote in person on Election Day rather than dropping off early ballots on Election Day all to ensure smooth, secure operations.
"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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Decision 2024
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