Faster vote count would have tradeoffs, Arizona Daily Star, The (Tucson, AZ)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Faster vote count would have tradeoffs, Arizona Daily Star, The (Tucson, AZ), November 15, 2022, pB001
Author/Byline: Mary Jo Pitzl Arizona Republic8-11 minutes
Vote counting in Arizona has rounded the corner into a new week.
It’s not unusual to see ballots tallied days after an election, but the close races and high stakes this year have many wondering why the pace can’t move faster.
There are ways to do that — many, in fact — although they come with tradeoffs, elections experts and others say. And many of those practices already are in place in Arizona.
But the tension remains between getting accurate results out quickly and giving people the longest time possible to vote, and in a convenient manner.
“I would not put quick out front of accurate,” said former Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett, a Republican and now a state senator-elect. “But we want quick in America. We shouldn’t sacrifice one for the other.”
Tammy Patrick, senior adviser on elections for the nonprofit Democracy Project, hears this debate every two years.
“This is the mantra in every election that is close: how do we do it faster?’ she said.
Eliminating mail-in voting and requiring people to line up at the polls is the simplest way to speed up vote counting. Mail-in ballots require extra verification steps to ensure the person who marked the ballot is the voter the ballot was intended for.
State Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, has said she would re-introduce legislation to abolish mail-in voting with exceptions only for military and disabled voters when the Legislature convenes in January.
But given the popularity of the program in Arizona — about 85% of voters used mail-in voting in the August primary — that’s a fraught issue for policy makers. Although Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake and lawmakers who align with her have favored eliminating the 30-year-old program, it might not go over well with the public.
Losing early voting also would reduce voter participation for those unable to travel to the polls and stand in what could be hours-long lines.
Even if the state eliminated the program, vote counting would go on for days, Patrick said.
However, dropping early voting and the extra verification steps it requires could allow media outlets to call a race sooner.
Vote counting has averaged 12.5 days since the 2006 election, Maricopa County officials said.
F. Ann Rodriguez, the former recorder in Pima County, said no one complains when races aren’t close, even as vote tabulation goes on for days. It’s only when things are tight that some in the media and among the political class start to question the speed of vote counting.
“When it’s close races, they’re hammering everybody,” Rodriguez said.
Patrick agreed.
“There isn’t a state nor territory that has official results on election night,” Patrick said.
Laws give voters time to clarify questions about their mail-in ballots, a so-called “cure” period that runs for several days after the polls close. And ballots sent in by overseas and military voters take extra time to process, making one-day vote counting impossible.
An express lane at the polls?
Still, there are ways to streamline mail-in voting, said state Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler.
Doing so could have helped especially this year, as Maricopa County on Friday just started to process the estimated 290,000 mail-in ballots dropped off at the polls, a number that is 70% greater than the previous record for drop-off ballots.
Mesnard intends to tweak a law he authored last year to require Arizona’s 15 county elections offices to provide a space where voters who wait until Election Day to turn in their ballots can opt to actually slide their ballot into the tabulation machine rather than drop it off for later processing.
This would be a separate line from in-person voters, or perhaps at a separate location; call it an express lane for people who have already filled out their ballot.
The law as it’s written doesn’t take effect until 2024, and only makes it an option for counties to provide this service.
“It seems like a really basic thing you can do,” he said, arguing it will cut down on hours of processing time because ballots would get counted on site, just as they are for voters who show up in person to vote.
“I suspect there will be renewed interest,” Mesnard said in an understatement, pointing to all the suspicions surrounding what many view as a molasses-slow counting process.
The focus on the state’s ballot counting is amplified more by the nationwide consequences of Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, which could affect the balance of power in Washington D.C., he said.
Elections officers said the idea sounds good, but counties would need more space and more equipment to make it work. That means more spending on elections, something Mesnard said he would entertain.
He also is considering whether to introduce legislation to remove ballot drop boxes at the polls, which would force voters either to mail their ballot or open their ballot envelope at the polls and put the ballot in the tabulation machine.
Faster results require more money
Nationally, elections experts say the best prescription for faster vote counting comes down to two basic elements.
“What you need is really simple: enough workers and enough space,” said Sam Oliker, executive director of the Institute for Responsive Government.
With more trained workers, and enough space to accommodate a bigger workforce and more equipment, ballot counting could run faster, he said. That amounts to more money for elections offices.
“Literally, more resources can be the best medicine to a county problem,” Oliker said.
At full capacity, for example, Maricopa County’s tabulation machines can process up to 60,000 to 80,000 ballots a day, officials say. More machines would handle more ballots, but cost of thousands of dollars.
Cochise County was grappling with the resource issue as its officials contemplated a hand count of every ballot cast in this month’s election.
While that effort was apparently shut down by the state Supreme Court, organizers were searching for a big enough site in the rural county to handle about 200 volunteers and staffers, as well as nearly 40,000 ballots that would have to stay in a secure space. They also were attempting to do the unorthodox count without drawing further on taxpayer dollars, although a law passed last year bars the use of outside money to help conduct elections.
Deadlines, vote centers can help
Other steps can speed up vote counting, experts say.
For example, states can allow the processing of early ballots for tabulation before the polls close, said Patrick, a former Maricopa County elections staffer. Arizona adopted this practice a few years ago.
States can set deadlines for requesting a mail-in ballot that match the U.S. Postal Service’s estimated time frames for getting a ballot back to elections offices in time for counting.
Arizona does this, with an 11-day cutoff before Election Day to request a ballot. But 20 states allow voters to request an early ballot during this period, which sets them up for failure because the ballot won’t be returned in time, Patrick said.
States also can enact policies that allow voters to resolve issues with their voter registration before they show up at the polls, reducing the need for provisional ballots, Patrick said. Provisionals take extra time to process and ensure the voter is properly registered.
Arizona has reduced the volume of provisional ballots by using vote centers, where a voter can cast a ballot anywhere in their home county, rather than being tied to a specific precinct.
More speed could come at a cost
Other measures would come at the expense of voter access, Patrick said.
For example, states could eliminate the cure period for ballots, shut down drop boxes before Election Day or require mail-in ballots to arrive at elections offices days before Election Day. Arizona accepts mail-in ballots until 7 p.m. on Election Day.
“Those are not moves that strengthen our elections. They simply erode the voters’ ability to successfully participate in order to pander to our need for instant gratification,” she said.
Like other elections officials, she said the public and the media need to practice patience while votes are counted.
“Those final seconds in a close game can stretch out for awhile, but we want to be certain that the final score is correct,” she said.
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Eliminating mail-in voting and requiring people to line up at the polls is the simplest way to speed up vote counting. Mail-in ballots require extra verification steps to ensure the person who marked the ballot is the voter the ballot was intended for.
Of course, people having to go to the polls would be quicker & safer, but now that democrats have opened this Pandora's box, which helps them get out their less enthusiastic voters, we are never going back to election day voting. As to the "extra verification steps" required for mail-in ballots based on a signature: Does anyone in their right mind think that the volunteers who work the polls are acting as hand writing experts or that there is enough time in this world to compare and verify millions of signatures?
Let that sink in Vic.
Florida has a bigger population than NY. They counted all the ballots in one night.
Let that sink in John.
They count the mail in votes before election day.
Arizona was a RED state when their voting procedures and mail in voting was established. All this conspiracy laced complaining is unbecoming to y'all.
Counting would have be quicker; except they had an incompetent [{deleted}] running the election.
Arizona got the governor they deserved. They will come to regret it.
Great idea.
Arizona was a RED state when their voting procedures and mail in voting was established.
That doesn't make it right.
More than anyone Joe Arpaio is blamed for Arizona going from red to blue...
I am 100% certain we will be just fine, thanks for your concern though.
Each signature is checked by both Republican and Democratic poll judges. It is not difficult at all to tell if one signature is completely different from another. The only possible way to get close enough to fool someone would be if the forger tried to copy the signature from an existing signature. Do you honestly think that is what happens?
How many mail-in ballots did they have?
Don't know, still checking the signatures!
It's embarrassing it takes a first world country this long to count votes.
60 years, it was considered a travesty Richard Daley would hold back vote counts until after midnight to see how many he needed out of Chicago. Now states can't count votes in a week?
Why can't we vote easily and securely online yet?
We can safely do our taxes and banking online...
Whatever! You can't stop it. It's happening.
Helluva retort there JBB, good job!
Votes are already tabulated, transmitted and calculated on online computers...
The system I imagine would have checks and failsafes and be much more secure.
More secure than our government systems that the Chinese hack?
Which states, because this article is about Arizona and Arizona does not allow that. Arizona law mandates an tabulation computers are not connected to a network that can be connected to the internet.
Dems have perfected it since.
It is taking too long.
Now, I have always advocated for easier ways to vote. Personally, I love this thing where they send the ballot to your house, and you just drop it off in a box like the mail. California sends a ballot like that to every registered voter, and I’m fine with it.
I just don’t get why it needs to take forever to count them.
I dropped my ballot off the Saturday before Election Day. On Tuesday evening, about 20 minutes after the polls closed, I got a text that my vote had been received and counted. Easy Peasy.
One of the things we hear is that it takes time to open the envelopes (fair enough, but a whole week?) and verify the signatures. I don’t see why this second part is necessary. In all the years I have physically gone to the polls, I have always signed my name, but no one “verifies” it. Even if they made the attempt, Joey’s Grandma - or whatever other bored senior has volunteered to work the election - is not remotely qualified to go “verifying” anyone’s signature. This is an empty gesture.
In court, the person who verifies a signature is the person who signed it. Not some handwriting expert, not a computer, and certainly not some enthusiastic septuagenarian with coke bottle glasses. We ask the person, “is this your signature?” and the person says “yes” or “no.” “Verifying signatures” is bullshit and wastes time.
The other issue is going to be ballots with problems. I.e.: Somebody voted for two people for governor or something like that. At the polling place, the machine would kick this ballot back immediately and the voter would have to fix it. With remote voting, election workers try to discern voter intent and “fix” the ballot. That’s not just time-consuming, it’s pretty sketchy.
So there needs to be a faster process in dealing with ballots that are flawed in some way.
Regardless of possible solutions, every state that is still farting around with the count a whole week after Election Day needs to get their shit together and make some improvements. Sadly, much of the acceptance of this crap is highly partisan. I have seen a lot of Democrats excusing it with “that’s just how it’s got to be” talk because Democratic governors or legislatures developed these systems. We have to be better than that.
I appreciate the easier voting, but this level of performance with the vote count is unacceptable.
Yep, spot on
That’s just more progressive claptrap. For centuries this country has survived just fine with an Election Day. Day. Not election days, week, weeks or month.
But at minimum, if you’re going to have early voting to, “increase voter access” set it up like Florida has so it doesn’t take days or weeks to get results.
If the third most populous state can have results on Election Day, so can much smaller states.
Not doing so makes them look foolish.
Inept and foolish.
Yeah.... but we survived for a century and a half without electricity, too. Not all change is bad.
I vote early. I'm not interested in standing in line.
In Texas we have 2 or 3 weeks (I don't remember exactly) of early voting at limited central locations. So everybody can vote when it works in their schedule.
The important thing is that everybody get the same chance to vote. You shouldn't have 3am dropoff voting when nobody else does just because you live in Harris County.
It helps when the races aren't close.
Never said it was
So do I now but for most of my life I managed to do my civic duty by voting on Election Day without pissing and moaning about it. So there is that.
Good, I’ll raise you a Michigan where all legal residents can apply for an absentee ballot like a month or so ahead of the Election Day. Yippee ki yay
Interestingly, I’ve always had the same chance to vote as anyone else. This included when I was out of state and overseas. Where there is a will, there is a way. Never needed to have my voting rights spoon fed to me.
It helps more when enough votes are counted on Election Day.
See.... that didn't happen in Texas in 2020.
Harris County (Houston) allowed pretty much what the hell ever under the guise of "it's covid and people are scared".