Vendor error blamed for over 3,100 Maricopa County mail ballots being sent out early

A few thousand Phoenix-area voters were sent mail ballots a week early because of a vendor error, according to the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office.

The 3,126 prematurely mailed ballots are correct and were sent to the right addresses by Runbeck Election Services, MCRO said Sunday. The intended recipients can use them as they normally would.

Any completed mail ballots that are returned before early voting officially begins Wednesday will be securely stored until normal processing and tabulation starts.

Runbeck notified MCRO about the mailing glitch on Friday, a day after the company’s logistics team erroneously delivered the ballots to the U.S. Postal Service Business Mail Entry Unit (BMEU).

Today, Runbeck Election Services (RES) issued the following statement to the media.

We requested that in the interest of transparency they also post the statement publicly; however, they refused.

The MCRO believes this is the wrong call, so we are posting it publicly for them. pic.twitter.com/CslKTPzotr

— Maricopa County Recorder's Office (@RecordersOffice) October 4, 2026

What did Runbeck say about sending out mail ballots too soon?

The batch was being handled separately because the ballots did not qualify for USPS automated mail processing, Runbeck said in a statement Sunday.

“The packets had been completed and were being staged at our facility for their scheduled presentation to the USPS. The skid (container/pallet) containing these packets was included with mail released that evening, which resulted in the packets reaching the BMEU at the USPS six days earlier than scheduled,” Runbeck said.

Runbeck is a Phoenix-based company that provides election services in 34 states and the District of Columbia. It prints and processes ballots on specialized high-speed equipment.

President Donald Trump weighs in on Maricopa County mail ballot error

President Donald Trump expressed skepticism that the incident was an error when a reporter brought it to his attention. Trump has a history of criticizing Maricopa County elections since he lost the county and state of Arizona to Joe Biden in 2020.

“They have to be ashamed of themselves,” Trump said when he was told the vendor sent out thousands of Maricopa County ballots in error. “By the way, there were no errors, you know that, right? There were no errors. Did you hear that? Maricopa sent out thousands of ballots illegally, and they got caught! And now they’re saying it was an error. Maricopa is a very, very dishonest county.”

Monday is the last day for Arizonans to register and be eligible to vote in the Nov. 3 general election.

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