By.The Arizona Republic
The Republic is gathering and analyzing early voting data from Arizona counties and the Secretary of State’s Office. Check back for regular updates and insights on early balloting.
This series was supported by the Pulitzer Center.
Voter guide:Where to drop off your Arizona ballot and how to track it
Oct. 27: Early voters prefer mail, no matter their political stripes
Arizona’s early voters are favoring the U.S. Postal Service to return their ballots over other delivery methods, like drop boxes and in-person voting.
The Republic has received ballot return method information from the Secretary of State’s Office for 13 counties. The Republic is getting early voter data from Maricopa and Pima counties directly, and neither is providing ballot return method as a data point.
Outside of Maricopa and Pima counties, 66% of Republican voters, 71% of Democrats and 74% of independent and other voters returned their ballots by mail.
Some Republican leaders have derided voting by mail and attempted to restrict the popular practice. But that hasn’t deterred Republican voters from using the mail, especially in some counties. In Apache and Greenlee counties, more than 80% of Republican voters have used the mail for early ballots. In Coconino and Navajo counties, the share is nearly 100%.
Today’s data addition also shows Democrats continue to expand their returned ballot advantage.
