Arizona election officials expect a surge in in-person voting in the state’s August primary as concerns about the coronavirus have somewhat abated and concerns about the safety of voting by mail have grown.
Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and nearly two-thirds of the state’s voters, has more than doubled the number of in-person voting locations for the Aug. 2 primary, from 99 locations in the 2020 primary. In contrast, 215 locations were opened. Pima County, which includes the state’s second-largest city, Tucson, also plans to expand in-person voting.
States that have already held primaries States like Georgia, Indiana, Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia saw an increase in in-person voting this year after changing rules in 2020 to increase access to mail-in voting.
To be sure, Arizona officials don’t anticipate a wholesale switch. That’s because the state has allowed no-excuse early voting and mail-in voting for decades, and the vast majority of voters here have been voting early and by mail for years. For the upcoming election, about 75% of voters in the state are on the early voter list and are guaranteed to automatically receive a mail-in ballot.
The county expects about 100,000 to 150,000 voters to vote in-person on Aug. 2, based on two separate forecasting models, but on Election Day for the 2020 primary. There were about 50,000 people. As for the general election, the county is expecting about twice as many elections as in 2020. The plan is to increase the number of stores from 175 as of November 2020 to 225.
Maricopa anticipates a corresponding decline in early voting, including in-person early voting and mail-in voting. More than 90% of voters cast early votes in both the 2020 primary and general elections. According to , there are two main factors shaping Maricopa County’s forecast. 2022 Election Plan Approved by County Supervisors. The first is to consider the waning reluctance to vote in person during the height of the pandemic.
Second, since the 2020 election, “a significant amount of false, objectionable, and malicious information has been disseminated regarding the security of the voting process, particularly as it relates to mail-in voting,” according to the election plan. . This could lead to some voters who have traditionally voted early voting on Election Day instead.
meanwhile, Some Arizona lawmakers continue to promote former President Donald Trump’s false rhetoric About the risks of voting by mail and new misinformation alleging fraud at the ballot box.
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Officials across the state said they are using data from 2018 and other past elections, not 2020, to predict the number of people who will show up to vote in person this year.
“2020 was truly abnormal,” said Scott Jarrett, Maricopa County elections director.
The expected increase in in-person voters also means counties will need more than twice as many poll workers as in 2020. Recruiting staff is a challenge for some communities in Arizona. One reason for this is that regular employees feel overworked in their jobs. It is politicized and labor shortages are also contributing factors.
“We’re asking people to register, but you have to get through a lot of no’s before you get a yes,” said Lynn, elections director for Yavapai County, northwest of Phoenix, which includes Prescott. Constabile said.
Arizona sticks with vote center model as lawmakers urge people to vote in their precincts
One pandemic-related change taking hold in Arizona this year is the ability for voters to vote anywhere, not just at polling places within their precincts.
Maricopa County fully switched to a so-called “vote center” model in 2020, allowing it to reduce the number of polling places it offers from about 500 in the 2018 primary to about 99 in the 2020 primary. , giving voters flexibility in voting. Where to go, and Pima County will be trying it for the first time this year.
Jarrett said this year’s increase in the number of polling places meant Maricopa voters had to drive a shorter distance from their homes to their polling places, on average about 2.3 miles, compared to 2 to 3 miles in 2020. .
The county plans to open more vote centers for early voting, starting with 10 locations when early voting opens 27 days before the election, and gradually increasing that number by Election Day.
The county will have nearly triple the number of voter check-in stations before and on Election Day compared to 2020, allowing voters to process the process more quickly.
Maricopa County’s 2020 wait times were reasonable, averaging two minutes, according to county data, but Jarrett said only 10 locations had significant wait times.
The increase in the number of counters and check-in stations is aimed at maintaining the status quo given the expected increase in in-person voting. And as the county adds locations, Jarrett said it’s addressing the needs of areas that have historically had longer wait times, such as Surprise and some areas in the East Valley.
At Surprise City Hall, wait times reached an hour at one point on Election Day in November 2020. The county is planning six locations in Surprise for this year’s primary, up from one location for the 2020 primary so far. The county is also mailing voters information about their nearest polling place, which could help alleviate long wait times at City Hall, county officials said.
Voters will also return to traditional polling places this year. In 2020, the county struggled to find spaces large enough to allow for social distancing, including spreading machines and people 6 feet apart. This has forced the county to abandon the use of traditional but smaller locations, such as Goodyear City Hall and the Nadaburg School in Whitman, and instead rent unconventional spaces such as closed storefronts.
Jarrett said the county won’t be doing that this year.
In Mohave County, which includes Kingman in northwestern Arizona, Elections Director Allen Tempert said the plan is to have about the same number of polling places as in 2018 and 2020. The county has at least one polling place per precinct on Election Day, and voters must vote within their precinct.
He said he is preparing for more people to vote in person than usual, but does not expect “180 people” to return to vote in person.
“I don’t think early voting is going to go away that quickly,” Tempert said. He said Arizona has had “perfect” early voting since well into 2020.
Pima County experiments with vote center model
For the first time since Pima County switched to a vote center model, Pima County voters will be able to vote outside of their precincts on Election Day.
That means the county will move from about 279 precinct-based locations to 129 voting centers, said Constance Hargrove, who just took over as the county’s elections director in April.
Hargrove said the move to vote centers allows the county to combine multiple locations, which is more efficient and makes sense given low voter turnout. At the same time, she said, it would also benefit voters who would be able to vote on Election Day near their workplaces or anywhere in the county.
Hargrove also expects the percentage of in-person voting in Pima County to be higher than in 2020.
Hargrove, a Virginia native, was the elections director in Chesterfield County, just south of Richmond. He said in-person voter turnout in the county increased dramatically from 2020 to 2021, when Virginia held gubernatorial elections.
She said she believes the easing of the pandemic and concerns about voting by mail contributed to the increase.
“We might see some of that in Maricopa County,” she said.
He said this is a year of experimentation for Pima County, where the county is working hard to anticipate where vote centers will be needed for the first time, as well as implementing new improvements to voter check-in and ballot printing. He said he is using technology.
The vote center model has grown in popularity in Arizona and across the country, but at the same time some Republican lawmakers have called for a return to precinct-based voting, arguing that vote centers allow for fraud. For example, polling stations would have been banned Under Arizona Republican bill.
Jarrett said in a May meeting with county supervisors that doesn’t mean vote centers aren’t safe. Electronic poll books, the technology used in vote centers, actually make verifying voter eligibility more accurate and efficient than using printed voter rolls because voter information is completely up-to-date. You can do it.
In addition to this, the use of a ballot printer that can print any ballot in any precinct will significantly reduce the number of provisional and rejected ballots.
For example, previously, if a voter showed up at the wrong precinct in Maricopa County, they had the option to cast a provisional ballot in that precinct if they believed they were in the right place. But if they were wrong, state law required those ballots to be rejected outright, even if the voters were eligible to vote in some elections. It did so in 2016 with about 3,000 votes, according to county officials.
On-demand ballot printers at Vote Centers allow voters to receive the correct ballot anywhere and eliminate rejected ballots.
Recruitment of polling station staff
Counties prepare to welcome more in-person voters, but also face challenges hiring enough temporary workers to meet demand amid record-low unemployment and high inflation. I am doing it.
Maricopa County aims to hire about 2,600 poll workers for the primary election, up from about 1,000 in 2020. In the 2018 primary, the county had about 2,500 poll workers.
In early May, the county was having trouble finding and hiring recruiters to help fill temporary positions. Jarrett told the Board of Supervisors at a May 2 meeting that he had posted eight job openings to recruiters, but only one qualified candidate was available.
At its meeting, the board agreed to increase the salaries of all temporary election workers, including recruiters, who are currently paid $15 to $18 an hour. Poll workers will be paid between $13 and $15 an hour.
The county has just over a month left until the first early voting locations open on July 6, and so far about 75% of the 10 early voting locations that will open that day are filled. .
