Election officials in one of the largest counties in Arizona, which ultimately decides the election in the critical swing state, are already warning Americans that voting tabulation could take weeks to conclude.
Maricopa County officials are asking people for “patience” as they tally up the final votes, which they say could take between 10 and 14 days. Deputy Elections Director Jennifer Liewer blames longer-than-usual ballots and the high interest in the 2024 election.
This year’s ballot in the state will be two pages long and have an average of 79 races per ballot. More than 400,000 people in Maricopa County have already cast their ballots, and over 2.1 million voters are expected to show up at the polls this year. As a result, election officials are encouraging people 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.”
Officials are also urging people to vote in person on Election Day instead of dropping off their ballots on November 4 to “ensure smooth, secure operations.” Maricopa County has taken measures to avoid a 2022 repeat, which turned out to be pure chaos at the polls, by hiring extra staffers and bringing in more high-speed tabulators. The county has faced dozens of election issues due to a "technology issue” that caused shocking discrepancies during the last election cycle.
In 2022, in-person voters were turned away because of “machine errors” despite several close races between a highly contentious election, including that state’s attorney general and gubernatorial races. The election took more than five days to conclude. In the end, the races were decided by a narrow escape that led to GOP candidate Kari Lake filing a lawsuit, blaming the “rigged system.”
I reported earlier this year that America First Legal (AFL) filed an amended lawsuit against several Arizona counties, including Maricopa, for failing to remove non-citizens from its voter rolls. The swing state has previously been a victim of election fraud despite Democrats dismissing any concerns about election insecurity.