By Jessica Boehm,Yvonne Wingett Sanchez and Rebekah L. Sanders | Arizona Republic
The fate of about 3,000 ballots cast in Maricopa County on Saturday and Monday at five polling places dubbed “emergency vote centers” is up in the air after the state Republican party threatened a lawsuit.
The Arizona GOP sent a letter to all county recorders Sunday questioning the legality of some emergency voting practices.
The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office offered “emergency voting” from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Monday for voters who could not make it to the polls on Election Day. The Recorder’s Office said it allowed voters to determine what constitutes an emergency.
This is the first year Maricopa County has offered emergency voting, but other counties have offered the extra polling hours for years.
In its letter, the AZ GOP argued that state law does not allow recorders to offer early voting after the Friday prior to Election Day except in specifically-defined emergency situations. It asked the counties to “identify and segregate all ballots” cast at emergency vote centers.
It’s unclear at this point whether that means the ballots would be counted.
