Stephen Richer Talks Primary Elections

County Recorder Stephen Richer talked about last week’s primary,challenges, and looking towards the November’s general election day.

Eight days to complete the count in Maricopa County. Is that above average or below average?

Richer: “It is a little below average. Now we had the vast, vast, vast, majority of ballots accounted for within the first 72 hours. And that is a little bit faster than average as well. The thing that we did this year that we are proud of is that every single early ballot that we received by Sunday before election day Tuesday which was over six hundred thousand, we had ready to release at 8 p.m. on Tuesday election night.”

That is the highest level for a primary in Maricopa County?

Richer: “Most number of participants ever in Maricopa County for a primary. That is right.”

Break it down, Republican versus Democrat. It looked like Republicans increased didn’t it?

Richer: “Yes it did. But we will break those down in the canvas. We have not fully digested all of those yet. But, we’re happy with how things went. Like I said, lots of people voted and they were able to vote.”

What is a canvas?

Richer: “It is a detailed assessment of the election. Who voted, how they voted, where they voted, what went well, what we would like to improve. So if you are interested in the nuts and bolts of elections it is a little dry but this is the place to go. And we always encourage people to tune in because there is a lot of information about elections if you look for it and we try to make it a little more accessible on our website, but this is really the core of it.”

Richer said that these elections were a “resounding success.”