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Some Pima County residents will receive mail-in ballots late this month due to mapping error

An early 2024 primary ballot for Pima County.
KJZZ
An early 2024 primary ballot for Pima County.

Election officials in Pima County say some county residents will receive their mail-in ballots a few days late this year amid a clerical issue with the county's election department.

Pima County residents on the Active Early Voting List began receiving ballots starting Oct. 9, according to the Pima County Recorder’s Office.

The process normally takes about two days, but it’s slowed down this year because of an issue at the Election Department earlier this month.

Pima County Communications Director Mark Evans says that’s when a mapping error placed about 500 voters in adjacent districts were placed into the incorrect one.

“Voters were in, they were in the right taxing district, but they were in the wrong voting district,” he said. “It didn’t necessarily change their registration, it just made sure that the ballot they got was correct.”

In an Oct. 4 press release, the country’s election department said the 509 voters from two districts would receive new voter ID cards as a result.

“A constituent alerted the County to the discrepancy last week and the County Recorder, Treasurer, Assessor, School Superintendent, the County Administrator, and the County’s Information Technology and Elections departments have worked quickly to determine the scope of the error and fix it before early ballots are mailed Oct. 9,” the release read.

Evans says ballot processing was temporarily halted while the issue was being fixed and officials worked to determine which voters were on the mail-in ballot list. The rollout of ballot packages were delayed as a result.

“This isn’t a flip of the switch, right? There’s several days of getting ready, and getting all the ballots ready, getting them all printed, getting them inserted, and getting them ready to get mailed. And so, they were in the middle of that,” Evan’s said. 

The Recorder’s Office says roughly 89,000 remaining ballots are set to arrive Tuesday and throughout the week to the more rural parts of the county. Residents part of the Active Early Voting List who don’t receive a ballot by Oct. 18 should call the Recorder’s Office at 520-724-4330 or visit recorder.pima.gov to learn more.

Alisa Reznick is a senior field correspondent covering stories across southern Arizona and the borderlands for the Tucson bureau of KJZZ's Fronteras Desk.