County officials say that their voters, of all political affiliations, have come to love the drop boxes for their convenience
Yavapai County voted overwhelmingly for Trump, and most voters there used ballot drop boxes. ‘2000 Mules’ is energizing the movement to ban them.
BY: JEN FIFIELD/VOTEBEAT
During elections, the historic Main Street of this small town in Central Arizona’s high desert gets busy.
A ballot drop box attracts droves of voters to the street, which has the town hall, a barber shop, tattoo parlor, gun store, and gift shop.
Voters cast nearly 2,000 ballots in Dewey-Humboldt’s drop box during the November 2020 election — quite a few for a town of just 3,000 registered voters.
Ballot drop boxes are popular not just here but all across Yavapai County, a Republican stronghold about an hour north of Phoenix that includes Prescott and overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump in November 2020.
More than half of the county’s voters used a drop box to cast their ballots in that election. That’s much higher than in Maricopa County, the only county that had more drop boxes, where roughly 34% of voters used them.
County officials say that their voters, of all political affiliations, have come to love the drop boxes for their convenience — they’re spread out across the county and open at all hours during the month of early voting. Republican County Supervisor Harry Oberg says he and his wife use them purely for convenience.
“We have talked to members of both parties and they have said, ‘No, they really aren’t thinking about decreasing the number of drop boxes, are they?’” said Angie Cloutier, the county’s elections manager. “And, you know, they are just as upset as we are about the possibility of us removing services from them that we are proud to provide.”
But KC Comstock, the owner of the Main Street Barber Shop, which has a Trump 2024 flag flying outside, says he believes that the drop boxes open up chances for fraud, and voting should be in person with an ID.
