Yavapai County Recorder Leslie Hoffman demonstrates use of a ballot drop box outside of the county administrative building in Prescott. Voters in the county favored drop boxes to voting by mail in 2020. Photo by Jen Fifield || Votebeat
In some Republican-heavy counties such as Yavapai and Yuma, voting via drop box this year actually increased from past primaries
By Rachel Leimgang || Votebeat
Yavapai County Recorder Leslie Hoffman demonstrates use of a ballot drop box outside of the county administrative building in Prescott. Voters in the county favored drop boxes to voting by mail in 2020. Photo by Jen Fifield | Votebeat
In the weeks leading up to August’s primary election, ballot drop boxes were getting a bad rap on the right. The documentary “2000 Mules,” which has been widely discredited, nonetheless supercharged claims that drop boxes enabled fraud. The now-nominee for Republican governor in Arizona told her followers not to use drop boxes. The Republican nominee for secretary of state, in the lead-up to his primary win, told his followers to monitor drop boxes and attacked the ones that weren’t guarded by live cameras.
So it’s not surprising that Democrats were more likely than Republicans to use a mail ballot in the 2022 state primary. But despite all the rhetoric, plenty of Republicans across the state still used both mail ballots and drop boxes. A Votebeat analysis of data provided by multiple counties shows ballot drop boxes remain a popular voting option for all Arizonans, including in Republican-dominated areas.
