If you’ve spent any time watching election night coverage over the last few years, you know the drill. Florida’s results are in before you’ve finished your first cup of coffee. Georgia is usually humming along. But then there’s Arizona. The desert state becomes a sea of "too close to call" and "waiting for more data" that lingers for days—sometimes even weeks. It feels like they’re counting by hand in a dark room, doesn't it?
Actually, the opposite is true. The reason why is Arizona so slow at counting ballots isn't because they are behind the times; it’s because the state’s laws and voter habits have created a perfect storm of logistical hurdles. It's a mix of a massive "late early" voting trend, a two-page ballot that literally doubled the workload in places like Maricopa County, and strict security protocols that prioritize accuracy over speed.
The "Late Early" Ballot Problem
Arizona is a mail-in ballot state. Nearly 80% of voters there choose to vote by mail. But here’s the kicker: hundreds of thousands of those voters don't actually mail them back. They hold onto them until Election Day and then drop them off at a polling place.
In Maricopa County—the massive region that includes Phoenix and accounts for about 60% of the state’s total vote—this is a nightmare for election workers. In 2022, nearly 290,000 ballots were dropped off on Election Day. Those are called "late earlies."
Think about the math. If you mail your ballot a week early, the county recorder’s office can verify your signature and get that ballot ready to be scanned before the polls even open. But if you drop it off at 6:30 PM on Tuesday? The law says that ballot cannot even be opened until the signature on the envelope is verified against historical records. This isn't just a quick glance. Experts like Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer have noted that workers must compare the signature on the envelope to the voter's registration form, MVD records, or previous election files.
It’s a manual, human-driven process. And it starts only after the polls close.
Why 2024 and 2026 Feel Even Slower
Just when you thought it couldn't get more complicated, the physical ballot itself grew. For the 2024 cycle, Maricopa County had to move to a two-page ballot. Why? There were so many local initiatives, judges, and state measures that they couldn't fit it all on one sheet of paper.
This effectively doubled the number of pages the machines had to scan. If you have 2 million voters and each has two pages, that’s 4 million pieces of paper moving through high-speed tabulators. If a single page jams or a voter makes a stray mark, the machine stops. A bipartisan board—meaning one Republican and one Democrat—has to sit down, look at the ballot, and determine the voter's intent.
Accuracy takes time.
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New Laws, New Delays
In early 2024, the Arizona legislature passed HB 2785. While it was designed to help the state meet federal certification deadlines, it added a new, time-consuming step for poll workers. Now, when those "late early" ballots are dropped off at a polling place, workers have to count the physical envelopes and report that number before they can even be transported to the central counting facility.
It’s a chain-of-custody win, but a speed loss.
The Signature "Curing" Window
Arizona law is very protective of the voter. If a worker thinks your signature doesn't match—maybe your hand was shaky or you’ve aged since you registered at 18—they don’t just toss your vote in the trash. They have to try and "cure" it.
- Election officials contact the voter via phone, email, or mail.
- The voter has a specific window to confirm it was actually them.
- Previously, this was five business days.
- Recent changes for the 2024-2026 cycles shifted this to five calendar days in some instances to speed things up, but it still means a significant chunk of ballots sit in "limbo" for nearly a week after the election.
Comparing Arizona to Florida (The Big Misconception)
You’ll often hear people ask, "Florida is bigger, why are they faster?"
It's a fair question. Florida law requires counties to finish counting almost all their early ballots by the day before Election Day. They also have a much earlier cutoff for when you can return a mail-in ballot. In Florida, if you haven’t returned that mail ballot by the time the polls open, you’re basically voting in person.
Arizona allows you to walk that mail ballot in up until 7:00 PM on Tuesday. It’s the ultimate convenience for the voter, but it's the ultimate bottleneck for the count.
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Is the System Broken?
If you talk to the Arizona Clean Elections Commission, they’ll tell you the system is actually working exactly as designed. The "slow" count is a feature of a system that emphasizes security and voter access.
Every ballot has a paper trail. Every tabulation room has a 24/7 livestream (you can literally watch them count on YouTube). Every machine is "air-gapped," meaning it’s never connected to the internet.
The delay isn't a sign of fraud; it’s a sign of a process that is refusing to cut corners. Whether or not that's a good thing is up for debate, but the "why" is purely logistical.
How to Help the Process Move Faster
If you're an Arizona voter and you want to see results faster on election night, there are a few things you can actually do to help:
- Mail your ballot early: If you have it by mid-October, send it back by late October. Don't wait.
- Sign clearly: Make sure your signature on the affidavit envelope matches how you signed your driver’s license.
- Update your info: If you’ve moved or changed your name, update your voter registration at least 30 days before the election.
- Sign up for alerts: Use services like "Be Ballot Ready" to track your ballot. If there's a problem with your signature, you can fix it before Election Day even arrives.
The reality is that as long as Arizona allows Election Day drop-offs of mail-in ballots, we are going to be waiting a week for final results. It's the price the state pays for making it as easy as possible for people to cast their vote. Honestly, it’s kinda just part of the Arizona political landscape now—much like the heat and the cacti, the slow count is here to stay.