All eyes are still on Arizona, where vote leaders continue to collate votes days after the Nov. 5 vote, even though Donald Trump has formally won a second term in office.
As of Friday morning, the Arizona secretary of state’s workplace estimates there are more than 780, 000 seats yet to be counted. Trump leads Kamala Harris by 5.9 positions, while Democrat member Ruben Gallego leads Republican Kari Lake by 1.7 positions, according to preliminary findings released so much.
The New York Times reports that the state legislature’s control and various local elections are still pending.
Republicans no longer need to win the White House and Senate this year, but Arizona’s reputation for taking days to produce final election results should n’t be taken lightly.
” The more you drag it away, the more it raises concerns that antics are occurring, that false action is occurring”, Arizona Free Enterprise Club President Scot Mussi told The Federalist. The single way to get rid of that is to ensure that election results are available on election day.
Voters ‘ confidence in the process is undermined if they are unable to give a definitive answer regarding the outcome of any particular race on the day of the vote. Imagine, for example, if the result of the 2024 presidential race came down to which prospect won Arizona. Certainly, Americans would experience a crisis of confidence if Maricopa County, the state with the highest population in Arizona, passed the laws that require proper release of results.
According to Arizona GOP Chair Gina Swoboda, the process is taking away confidence in the system, so the status quo must end.
Why the Delays?
While Arizona, and especially Maricopa County, have definitely had their fair share of election misadministration, the biggest deterrent to citizens obtaining results fast originates from an issue within state laws, according to Mussi and Swoboda.
In Arizona, voters are permitted to transfer their first message ballots via email or , give them , in person at any voting middle in their particular county by 7 p. m. native time on Election Day. All absentee citizens are  , required , to offer their name on the ballot box oath, which is then compared to the one on their membership type. The ballot is processed and tabulated once the signatures match has been verified by election officials.
The office of the Arizona secretary of state notes that “most” early mail ballots received before Election Day are “tabulated in the weeks leading up to the election.” Voters receiving timely election results are a problem because of how counties handle the early ballots cast on Election Day.
According to Swoboda, the state’s failure to deliver election results in time is primarily due to the state’s current law, which allows voters to cast early ballots on Election Day.
For instance, officials in Maricopa County estimated on Wednesday that more than 212 000 early ballots were returned to county election sites on Election Day. When early ballots were sent in the county from drop boxes and the Post Office, the total is even greater ( more than 225, 000 ).
According to Swoboda, these mail ballots and those in other counties that were returned on Election Day must go through the verification process described above before they can be submitted to officials, which the secretary of state’s office claims takes “time.”
” Voters being permitted to drop off [hundreds of thousands of ] ballots in envelopes on Election Day will absolutely cause this delay,” she said.
Meanwhile, Constantin Querard, president and founder of the Arizona-based Grassroots Partners, pointed to Maricopa County and other localities ‘ two-page, double-sided ballot as a potential factor hindering the prompt release of election results. He claimed in a statement to The Federalist that while everything” seemed ] fine” at the start of the election night, it became clear as the evening progressed that Maricopa officials were unaware of how the unusually long ballot’s impact had on their operations.
Because they were far behind and that the first ballot drop was minor, Querard said,” They clearly got something wrong before [election night].” It seems that the two-sheet ballot really messed up their estimates, but it’s hard to believe they were surprised by the scale of the operation.
Mussi told The Federalist that while he does n’t think Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer is intentionally thwarting the “broken” process, Richer and those who support him “actively defend it and believe that it is working”
Officials ‘ Resistance to Change
Legislative efforts to streamline the state’s tabulation process have proven challenging, despite continuing to impede Arizona’s ability to deliver results in time.
The Arizona Legislature changed state law to permit counties to conduct “on-site tabulation of early ballots” in 2022. According to Mussi, however, none of Arizona’s 15 counties have implemented it.
Since 2022, that law has been in place. They could ]have done ] it for this election”, Mussi said. ” We’re going to urge counties after this election to implement that, to provide that option]where ] if]a voter has ] an early ballot, they could go to a location, show ID ,]and ] tabulate their ballot on site. That will address the vast majority of the issues that arise from not receiving election results on election night.
According to Swoboda, the counties ‘ lobbying group and the state Democrats have fought “every bill” that Arizona Republicans have introduced that would require localities to implement on-site tabulation for early ballots collected at polling places on Election Day. She claimed that their desire to implement an all-mail voting system in the state is what is to blame for this opposition, which continues to undermine voter confidence in Arizona’s elections.
Because they believe they can get us to go to all-mail, Swoboda said,” They do n’t want to do anything to improve the in-person voting experience.” Because we have the right to vote in person,” I understand why they want it, but they wo n’t get it,” he said.
Legislation passed earlier this year could potentially reduce some of the existing backlogs, even though required on-site tabulation is still a major challenge.
The bill stipulates that, beginning in 2026, voters “may choose to provide identification” that meets current statutory requirements” when presenting]their ] mailed early ballot” at a polling site on Election Day. The voter’s identification has already been verified, so it must be verified by election officials before the ballot is placed in a designated ballot box and declared “ready” for tabulation.
The Federalist staff writer Shawn Fleetwood graduated from the University of Mary Washington. He previously served as a state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, RealClear Health, and Conservative Review. Follow him on Twitter @ShawnFleetwood
