Why do Arizona votes take so long to count?

President-elect Donald Trump has won Arizona, with the state announcing its results days after his stunning comeback victory over incumbent Vice President Kamala Harris.

Trump, who won the popular vote for the first time in three attempts, swept all seven key battleground states in a landslide victory over Harris, bringing his total Electoral College count to 312.

As of this writing, The Associated Press (AP) has not yet called the Arizona Senate race. Congressman Ruben Gallego currently leads GOP candidate Kari Lake with 1,471,361 votes to her 1,426,479, with 87 percent of the ballots counted.

The vote-counting process in Arizona can be slower than in some other states due to a combination of election procedures, state laws, and logistical factors.

Why Do Arizona Votes Take So Long To Count?

Voters can request a mail-in ballot, return it by mail, drop it off at a designated box, or submit it in person at an early voting center.

Arizona has a long-standing tradition of encouraging mail-in voting, with over 75 percent of voters opting for this method due to the remote conditions. However, processing these ballots is time-consuming, as they require steps like signature verification and curing, where voters are contacted to confirm their signatures. Arizona also begins processing mail-in ballots only just before Election Day, which adds to the overall delay.

According to Arizona law, mail-in ballots postmarked by Election Day can still be counted if they arrive by 7 p.m. that day.

Many ballots are dropped off in person on Election Day, leading to a large influx of ballots that must be processed immediately after polls close.

Each mail-in ballot must be scanned, sorted, and undergo signature verification to confirm the voter’s identity, which significantly slows down the counting process. In 2022, around 20 percent of voters submitted their mail-in ballots just before polls closed, further contributing to the delay.

Under state law, Arizona voters have up to five days after Election Day to “cure” any issues with their mail-in ballots, such as a signature mismatch or missing information. If a problem is identified, the voter is notified and given a five-day window to correct the problem for their ballot to be counted.

Arizona has experienced very close election results, which require meticulous counting to ensure accuracy. When races are tight, officials are even more careful with the count, and this often includes double-checking totals and verifying batches, adding to the time needed.

Arizona counties handle vote counting independently, and some counties—like Maricopa, the fourth most populous in the U.S.—have large voter populations and extensive logistics to manage.

On Tuesday, 225,118 early ballots got dropped off at the vote centers in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous.

In Maricopa County, officials previously said it could take up to 10 to 13 days to process all its ballots. Maricopa, which includes Phoenix, went for President Joe Biden in 2020 by a margin of about 45,000 voters (in a county of 4 million people).

Maricopa’s slower pace comes despite Arizona being one of 12 states that allow processing and counting of mail-in ballots ahead of Election Day.

Over the past four years, Maricopa County has implemented several new security and transparency measures to enhance the election process. These include installing cameras in key areas of the election center to monitor activity and provide a glimpse into the election procedures.

Deputy Elections Director Jennifer Liewer said at a press conference on Tuesday that counting the 2.1 million ballots, each with 79 contests on them, was likely to take up to nearly two weeks.

“We want to make sure that this is a secure process, but we also want to make sure that it is an accurate process,” she said.

Together, these factors contribute to Arizona’s lengthier counting process, especially during high-turnout elections like presidential races, where accuracy is paramount and the procedures are extensive to uphold voting integrity.

Meanwhile, disinformation and conspiracy theories have spread rapidly on social media following Trump’s victory in the state and Gallego’s lead over Lake in the Senate race, which has still yet to be called.

One user on X (formerly Twitter) claimed that Arizona “has become the poster child for corrupt elections,” without providing any substantiated evidence to support the accusation.