PHOENIX, Arizona — Maricopa County goes into Election Day on Tuesday, November 3, with about 1,050,000 ballots already cast and about 950,000 of them already counted, county officials said on Monday, as the Phoenix-area county prepared to open 254 vote centers for the final day of voting in the midterm elections.

Source: Particle News summary of the county briefing

Officials expect about 250,000 more people to vote in person on Tuesday. Vote centers and ballot drop-off locations will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m., and any voter still in line at 7 p.m. will be allowed to vote, the county recorder's office said.

One change this year is aimed squarely at the county's large mail-ballot vote: a voter who still holds a mail ballot can bring it to any vote center, show a valid government ID and have it tabulated on the spot — the recorder's office calls the option “Stamp and Go” — instead of waiting for the envelope to go through signature verification. Ballots returned the ordinary way must reach a drop box or voting location by 7 p.m. on Election Day; postmarks do not count in Arizona, and the last recommended day to mail a ballot back was October 27.

How the results will come out

The county plans a first release of results at 8 p.m. on Tuesday covering mail ballots received by Saturday, followed by further updates each night, with counting expected to continue through the week. The recorder's office will keep verifying signatures on early-ballot envelopes, contacting voters whose signatures do not match their registration records and processing provisional ballots after polls close. Voters whose signatures do not match have until 5 p.m. on Sunday, November 8, to cure their ballot, by phone or online.

Observers, security — and admitted mistakes

Officials said they asked the U.S. Department of Justice to vet the election observers who will watch the count, and that law-enforcement support at voting sites will be discreet, deliberately avoiding visible armed officers. The county has also added tabulation staff and equipment to cut processing delays.

County leaders openly acknowledged a difficult run-up: a vendor mailed about 3,000 ballots early, some registration records were marked erroneously, and the tabulation center went through a temporary lockdown. Officials said extra verification steps, audits and oversight have been added in response — the county's stated aim is to reassure voters in a place where ballot counting has been watched, and contested, more closely than almost anywhere else in the United States.

Who runs what on the day

Election Day itself is run by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors' Elections Department, which oversees the vote centers, drop boxes, polling-place staff, on-site ID-verification tabulation and all voting equipment, according to the recorder's office. Early voting ended on Friday, October 30, at 7 p.m.; by that weekend the county had already received more than 900,000 ballots.

Source: AZ Free News, reporting the recorder's press release

Besides the 254 vote centers — every one of which also accepts dropped-off mail ballots — the county has 16 drop-box-only locations. Two 24-hour drop boxes are open on Election Day from midnight to 7 p.m.: one at the county's ballot tabulation center at 510 South 3rd Avenue in Phoenix and one at the county elections office in Mesa at 222 East Javelina Avenue. Voters can track their ballot through BeBallotReady.Vote, use the county elections website's map to find the location with the shortest wait, and call the elections department on 602-506-1511 with questions.

For Punjabi families across the Phoenix metro and for truckers crossing Arizona on Interstates 10 and 17, the practical points are simple: you can vote at any of the 254 centers, not just one assigned precinct; a mail ballot in hand is still good if it is dropped off — or shown with ID for on-the-spot tabulation — by 7 p.m.; and being in line by 7 p.m. locks in your right to vote even if the wait runs long.