By Mitchell Koch | AZ Family
The frustration with Arizona’s drawn-out elections process is well-known, and one official is hoping to change that.
On Monday, Maricopa County Supervisor Thomas Galvin proposed election reforms that aim to hasten the tabulation process and counting nearly all ballots by election night.
Galvin proposed the following changes:
- Move up the cutoff date for early ballot drop-offs
- Use government buildings to host polling sites
- Eliminate emergency voting for the Saturday and Monday before election day and allow everyone to vote in person
This year, election officials faced several challenges that prolonged tabulation, including two-page ballots, increased voter turnout, and more early ballots being dropped off on election day.
According to current state law, early ballots cannot be counted until election day, and those dropped off on election day cannot be processed and tabulated until after that.
“About 40 to 45 states in the U.S. (have) 95% of their votes tabulated election night. But Arizona is the one swing state that is still counting votes after election day,” Galvin said.
