Proposal issued to speed up election day voting process

Thomas Galvin (R), District 2 Supervisor for the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors, has sent a letter to lawmakers and Governor Hobbs asking them to change the ballot counting timeline and pass reforms to speed up the vote-counting process in Arizona.

Galvin joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss his decision to put this initiative forward.

“Regardless if it’s a presidential year or not, we have seen that in Arizona, all 15 counties, not just Maricopa County, are counting ballots eight, nine, 10, 11 days after the election,” Galvin said. “Within 48 hours, people just start to freak out.”

According to Galvin, even though Arizona followed its election laws, voters were still concerned about the length of time it took to count their ballots. This is because Arizona was one of the last states to count all of its ballots.

“People confuse when races are called by the media and when jurisdictions are done tabulating votes,” Galvin said. “So if you’re watching TV and Fox News says that Donald Trump won Indiana or Kamala Harris won New York, it’s because they know they are going to win those two states and can call it that night. However, those states are still counting days later. But in Arizona, we’re a swing state, and we don’t really know who’s going to win.”

Galvin has also made a request for early ballots to no longer be accepted on Election Day. He has argued that his proposals to speed up vote counting are intended to improve the experience for voters and election workers.