Officials in Maricopa County — the largest county in Arizona that routinely decides elections in the pivotal swing state — are telling the public to expect long lines on Election Day and have warned that vote tabulation could take anywhere between 10 and 14 days.
In Maricopa County, election officials are calling for “patience” as the final election tallies may not be known until two weeks after Election Day. Officials are blaming an unusually long ballot and high interest in the presidential election, Deputy Elections Director Jennifer Liewer told NBC 12 Arizona.
“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.”
Officials have pointed to a two-page ballot — which will contain an average of 79 races — in anticipation of a lengthy vote-counting process. As a result, Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates is urging residents to vote early.
“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.”
Roughly 2.1 million voters are expected to turn out for Maricopa County elections this year. Of that number, 400,000 people have already cast their ballots.
In order to combat expected delays, election officials are hiring additional staffers, 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,” NBC 12 reported.
“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.”
Marciopa County was the site of much controversy in 2022, when several in-person voters were turned away due to “machine errors.” Several races — including the state’s attorney general and gubernatorial races — were decided by razor-close margins, leading to an unsuccessful election lawsuit filed by Republican nominee Kari Lake.
Then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs was able to oversee her own election while current Attorney General Kris Mayes, a Democrat, went on to indict sitting Republican lawmakers and top Trump Campaign officials for dubious election “crimes” after winning by less than 500 votes.
