By Rebekah L. Sanders | The Republic
aricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes announced a plan Thursday to make sweeping changes to how the county runs elections, including eliminating all polling places as early as 2018 and moving to mail-only ballots. Fontes, who was elected last year on a platform of overhauling the office, estimated the move could save the county as much as $30 million over the next few years because outdated polling-place equipment would not need replacing. He said all-mail voting also would eliminate the difficulty of finding and staffing more than 700 polling places and improve accuracy in counting.