Election day is drawing nearer. It’s one week from tomorrow, in fact. More than a million Arizonans have already voted, and Maricopa County officials are trying to ward off panic by announcing early that it will take 10-13 days to count every ballot here.
That has election deniers sounding the alarm. But, as Elvia Díaz points out, it always takes time to count ballots.
Díaz is the editorial page editor of the Arizona Republic, and she joined The Show to talk more about it all.
Full conversation
LAUREN GILGER: OK, so the county was really kind of trying to stave off concern with this announcement last week that it will take 10-13 days to get every ballot through the process, but this seems to have set off even more concern.
ELVIA DÍAZ: Yeah, can you believe that? And actually I do, because that’s exactly what happened two years ago and four years ago. But essentially nothing has happened in Maricopa County and in Arizona because it is by state law that it takes time to count the ballots. People are voting early. People are voting in person.
But we know that there are some really bad actors already fueling into that conspiracy that the election system is broken, that county election workers are going to be cheating on Election day, which is absolutely not true.
But that feeds into the panic, right? And so we are already hearing from people thinking that any delay in knowing the election results on election night is going to be conspiracy, is going to be because someone is cheating. And that it’s just not the case.
GILGER: And we pretty much know at this point — if we know anything about what’s going to happen post Election Day — that we will probably not have results right away, as the county is pointing out here. Columnist Laurie Roberts pointed out in a column that this is how it’s always been, like you say. She says it’s taken on average 13 days to count ballots in Maricopa County and recent elections, in fact.
And she talks about the reason why, you mentioned the state law. This is because of how county officials are required to count ballots, right?
DÍAZ: Yes, exactly. So in Arizona, you are able to vote early. And I’m pretty sure a lot of you listening right now still have your early ballots,still have to fill it out. I know, I’m one of those.
GILGER: Me too.
DÍAZ: And so I found myself among the early voters. There are tons of them. So if you mail your ballot and then it gets to that county, those votes are the ones that are results that we know exactly at 8 o'clock.
So every election, there are usually early results that we call at 8 o’clock. And those are the early ballots. And then you have the people that are voting in person. So those are the ones that are going to be counted later.
But then there’s a third action that happens: early ballots that are turned in on Election Day. And those are the ones I take the longest to count because by law, they’re not allowed to count them on Election Day. And it gets confusing. I mean, people forget, right? Who’s thinking about how ballots are counted until it’s actually time to vote? So yes, it is a process. It is the law. They can’t do it.
And there is a whole process that takes place with early balloting. So if you have your ballot, you don’t mail it, you return it on Election Day. That ballot is going to take quite a few days to be counted because it has to go through a whole series of steps before it does. And that’s why it takes longer.
GILGER: Yes, and I’ve definitely been one of those people in the past as well. It does take longer. So I want to talk more broadly about this kind of underlying message because it’s a little convoluted. You’ve got election deniers saying this is an election emergency. People like Alex Jones, you’ve got Elon Musk kind of griping about it. You’ve got lots of folks kind of giving you this idea that this isn’t like it used to be in the old days, where we could count everything in a day.
But at the same time, you’ve got lots of folks on both sides — including Donald Trump — saying, “Please return your ballots early, vote early, vote early, vote early,” as county officials are saying.
DÍAZ: That’s why it’s confusing. It is most unfortunate that all those people that you were mentioning — they are smart people, and I believe they’re doing that on purpose to confuse voters. And that’s my biggest worry that they’re doing in anticipation of losing or blaming the election system for not liking the results at the end.
And that’s just horrific. That’s just not good for democracy, not good for transparency. And if you remember the last election, Republican candidates and Donald Trump and everyone else were urging their voters not to vote early, just to go in person, not to trust the system. And now it’s the opposite. Now they are telling them, “Vote early, vote early, vote early.” And then at the same time, you have all these bad actors that you were mentioning, saying, “They’re going to cheat, they’re going to cheat.”
And so it's just a bad situation. And they do it in bad faith, from my point of view. Anyone who wants to learn about how ballots are counted are free to do so. I mean, Maricopa County, for instance, which is run by Republicans. Elections are run by Republicans at the county Board of Supervisors and also at the recorder’s office.
They have been incredibly transparent, and they have been open to whoever wants to learn about how ballots are counted. I mean, they give tours. They give all the information available. They have cameras everywhere. But again, people are not taking the time to actually learn all those steps to actually see how it’s done. And they just listen to this cacophony of voices that are telling you that the elections are rigged. And again, that to me is an anticipation of not liking the results.
GILGER: Interesting. OK. So I want to ask you lastly about another story that’s arisen as early voting numbers have rolled in — and that’s been pointed out in columns on your pages, and you mentioned here. Democrats are not voting early in the kinds of numbers they might have back in 2020, say. Republicans, though, seem to be doing it differently than they did in the last few election cycles and voting early as they used to.
DÍAZ: That’s very interesting. I was looking at the numbers. And yes, it appears that more Republicans are returning their ballots compared to independents like you and I and Democrats. But I would like to think that is probably because Arizona has a very long ballot, and people are taking the time to actually fill out the entire ballot.
I know I count myself as one of those people. I mean, I vote in every single line, and I have like one or two really local races — like school boards, for instance — that I want to do a little bit more research on before returning my ballots. So I would like to think that those people are just doing that.
But clearly there are others that are just forgetting about it, and they’re trying to do it at the last minute. It is important to mention that Republicans have a voter registration advantage, statewide and also in Maricopa County, so that might be the reason why too.
Again, maybe it is because there is a lot to learn about before filling out the ballot. I hope it’s that.
