Arizona Primary Election voting

Arizona’s Primary Elections are set to happen on August 2, and early voting has already begun.

On Arizona Horizon is Scott Jarrett, Maricopa County Elections Director, to talk about things to know when voting in this election.

Preparations

Maricopa County is preparing for Arizona’s primary elections coming up this Tuesday. With 54 voting centers already open ready for voters. On top of that, early voting had been underway with ballots already being returned.

“We’ve actually had over 400,000 ballots returned to the elections department.”

As of this broadcast, Jarrett said that there have been no glitches or issues with voting and voting centers as they began setting up for August 2.

Voting Terms

To better help voters get an understanding of the process, some key terms were defined and explained:

• Vote Centers-the 200 voting locations in Maricopa County. Voters can go to any of the 200 locations to vote and can visit this website to find more details such as when they open as well as wait times for the centers.
• Emergency Vote Centers-this is the time frame as to when voters can cast their ballots if they cannot vote on Election Day. It will begin at 5 pm this Friday and close Monday, Aug 1st at 5 pm. Signatures and identification will still be required.

Dropboxes

Location: Dropboxes are located at every voting center as well as a few in city and town clerk offices and 24 hour dropboxes outside election offices.

Early voters must sign and place their number on the ballot before submitting it into the dropbox and they can be dropped off through Election Day.

Tracking your ballot

If voters want make sure that their ballots are going where they are supposed to, this website will allow voters to track the different processes and details.

“They can see their ballot status, when we’ve mailed it, when they’ve sent it back, once we’ve received it, once it’s been signature verified, and once it goes through tabulation and they can also sign up for our text messaging service.”

Pens

Voters are recommended to use the felt tip pens that are provided in the voting booths. This is important for a number of reasons.

The provided felt pens have quick drying ink which will prevent ink from smudging and causing overvotes. On top of that, the provided pens work best with the tabulation equipment and will prevent technical issues.