Here’s what Arizona voters need to know about final week of primary election

PHOENIX – It might be too late to mail in your ballot for Arizona’s 2022 primaries, but there are other ways to vote in the final week leading up to Election Day.

Officials say if you put a completed ballot in the mail after Tuesday it might not arrive on time. Postmarks don’t matter; ballots have to reach county election offices by 7 p.m. Aug. 2 or they won’t be counted.

Tuesday was also the last day to ask your recorder’s office to send you an early ballot.

But if you haven’t gotten around to filling out your bubbles, you can still return completed early ballots at an official drop box or vote center up to 7 p.m. on Election Day.

If you want your vote to be part of the results released at 8 PM…

DO:

Mail your ballot back today
Drop it off by this weekend
Vote in-person this week

DONT:

Drop your early ballot off on Election Day.

— Stephen Richer—Maricopa Cnty Recorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) July 26, 2022

You can also vote in person at any open vote center through Election Day if you want to bypass the mail ballot system.

Voters registered as independents can participate in a primary, they just have to request mail ballot from their recorder (by Tuesday’s deadline) for one of the parties or do the same at any vote center through Election Day.

Maricopa County residents can check their status and get more election information at BeBallotReady.Vote.

More than 50 vote centers are already up and running in the Phoenix area. Most of them will be open on Saturday.

Sixty-plus more will begin operating on Monday, and the full slate of 211 will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Election Day.

“You can go to Locations.Maricopa.Vote, choose any one of them, choose one that’s close to work, choose one that’s close to home,” Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s The Gaydos and Chad Show on Monday.

“They all work, they all work well, and they all work the same.”

Richer said the county has verified signatures on nearly 400,000 returned ballot envelopes since early voting started July 6.

“Participation is lagging from where it was at this time in August 2020,” he said. “So we don’t know if that’s just that there’s less interest this cycle because it’s not a presidential cycle or if a whole bunch of people are waiting until Election Day to either get a new ballot printed and vote then or to drop off the early ballot on Election Day.”

The county is expecting more than 800,000 ballots to be cast during the primaries, Richer said.

“We won’t get to a million in Maricopa County,” he said. “And, you know, more important to me, quite frankly, is that people have a positive experience if they choose to vote and that they feel good about their vote and they feel that they had the ability to vote if they wanted.”

Looking ahead, here are the key dates for Arizona’s general election this fall:

• Oct. 11: Last day to register.
• Oct. 12: Early voting begins; counties send out ballots to voters who requested them or are on the Active Early Voter List.
• Oct. 28: Last day to request a mail ballot.
• Nov. 8: Election Day.

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