PHOENIX — Maricopa County updated thousands of ballots Friday, including early ballots received by the county on Saturday, Sunday, and most of Monday.
Pima County still has over 100,000 ballots left to tabulate as of Friday morning. Officials say over 2 million ballots have already been counted across the state.
In a press conference Friday afternoon, Maricopa County elections officials said approximately 80,000 ballots would be released tonight between 8-9 p.m. Officials said these ballots would include some of the early ballots dropped off on Election Day - some of those are the 17,000 "Box 3" or "Door 3" ballots.
"Box 3" ballots that were mistakenly printed were too light for the tabulators to read.
The RNC and the Republican Party of Arizona are demanding around-the-clock shifts of ballot processing. Their press release states they won't hesitate to take legal action.
RELATED: Maricopa County starts counting 'Box 3' ballots. Officials expect final results early next week
This will leave less than 300,000 left to be counted in Maricopa County.
RELATED: Maricopa County starts counting 'Box 3' ballots. Officials expect final results early next week
'The goal posts have changed': Maricopa County officials no longer expect 95 - 99% completion by Friday
Maricopa County elections officials originally stated they hoped to have 95 to 99 percent of ballots counted by Friday.
However, on Thursday, they stated the goalpost has moved back. That's due to the high number of early ballots received on Election Day, which state law requires a thorough verification process prior to tabulation.
Early ballots must be scanned in, signature verified, processed by a bipartisan panel then tabulated; a process that takes time.
Officials say elections workers are already clocking 14 to 18-hour days.
Maricopa County officials say the public can expect around the same number of results to be released between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. until all of the remaining ballots are counted.
A multi-day counting process is completely normal in Arizona
Leading up to Election Day, Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer and Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Bill Gates held weekly press conferences in the interest of transparency where they urged voters to get early ballots in early. The Republican elections officials cautioned the later early ballots are received, the longer it will take for them to be counted.
Gates and Richer pointed out Thursday no state is done with one hundred percent of its counting but most races are not as close as Arizona's so it's not being watched as closely.
Every state has different election laws. In Arizona, voters have flexibility with early ballots and are allowed to drop them off up to 7 p.m. on Election Day which is not allowed in some other states.
In addition, Maricopa County is the second largest voting jurisdiction in the country only behind Los Angeles County.
Maricopa County's election system is running the way it is supposed to according to state law.
There is also a "first in first out" policy when it comes to counting these votes so the sooner the county receives them, the sooner they are counted, which is why the early ballots dropped off on Election Day have yet to be reflected in posted results.
Maricopa County's tabulation process has become the source of some misinformation where some have alleged something nefarious is going on because results are not yet known. That is false.
'It is offensive': Elections officials respond to Kari Lake's criticism
County elections officials responded to claims from gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake that workers are "dragging their feet" and "slow rolling the results."
“We are absolutely not slow rolling it and also if their team would’ve been paying attention before this election, they would’ve heard us talk about this over and over again that we were not gonna have results on election night or even the next day. That it was gonna take several days," said Bill Gates, chairman of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors.
"And quite frankly it is offensive for Kari Lake to say that these people behind me are slow rolling this when they’re working 14 to 18 hours. So I really hope this is the end of that now. We can be patient and respect the results when they come out.”
Decision 2022
Arizonans will go to the polls this November for the midterm elections. Here's everything you need to know leading up to election night.