In-person voting may become thing of elections past

PHOENIX — Thanks to a rise in the number of early voters, in-person voting could become a thing of the past.

According to Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell, early mail-in ballots are convenient, cost-effective and quickly becoming the preferred method of voting for Maricopa County residents.

“Each election we see more,” she said. “We could have as much as 75 or 80 percent of the people who vote in this election will be voting by mail.”

Nearly 1.3 million early ballots were mailed to voters for Tuesday’s election, with about 570,000 of those returned by Monday afternoon.

Purcell said she welcomes a shift away from in-person polling because it’s easier for voters and would likely help civic participation.

“If you’ve got the ballot at home you can discuss it with your family members and so forth,” she said. “I think it also helps us train our young people as they come up that this is something that their parents take part in and that they should too.”

Mail-in ballots will also help the county save money during elections, Purcell said.

“You don’t have the polling place expense and you don’t have the poll workers,” she said. “In our election day now, we have 724 precincts and on election day we have about 5,000 workers.”

However, Purcell said it would take a decision from the Arizona State Legislature to do away with in-person voting and there does not seem to be enough support in the Legislature to make the change at this time.

Purcell said it appears the decision on whether to continue in-person polling will be decided on a city-by-city basis and some of which, such as Goodyear, Litchfield Park and Fountain Hills, have already made the decision to vote only by mail.

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