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    When do they start counting votes? What Arizona voters should know
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    When do they start counting votes? What Arizona voters should know

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    Arizona voters have their last chance to cast their ballots on Tuesday.

    While many are going to the polls to vote in person, most voters have already cast their ballots, either by absentee ballot, at the ballot box or at early voting locations.

    Arizonans can expect to see the first general election results about an hour after polls close on Tuesday, with more to follow throughout the night. This first round will include most of the previously submitted ballots.

    But complete results will likely take days. State law gives county election officials about two weeks to complete the count, and officials said it could take 10 to 13 days to fully complete the vote count. In Arizona, voters can drop off ballots early at the polls on Election Day, and those ballots still must go through verification processes that take time to complete.

    Here's what you need to know about vote counting in Arizona, including when counting begins, how the process works, and when results are expected.

    When do officials start counting votes?

    State law allows election officials to begin counting ballots as soon as they are mailed or submitted.

    How does vote counting work in Arizona?

    When you cast your ballot, it goes through a few steps before it is counted.

    1. Transporting ballot papers: Before your vote can be counted, it must reach the right place. Your ballot ultimately ends up at the election center in your district.
    2. Verification of the vote: Anyone who votes in person must show identification when voting. Early ballots go through a different process called signature verification, in which trained election officials look at an image of your signed affidavit and compare it to up to three of your other signatures on file. Once your signature is successfully verified, a bipartisan team will separate your ballot from the early voting envelope. Then it is officially ready for counting.
    3. Counting with tabs: Vote counting machines – or more officially, tabulators – are the devices that count your ballot. They are used in more than 90% of precincts in the United States and all 15 counties in Arizona. In some counties, voters enter their ballots into tabulators at on-site voting locations.
    4. Non-partisan review: If there is a problem with the way the ballot was filled out, a process called adjudication is initiated, in which bipartisan teams examine the ballots to determine the voter's intent.
    5. Report results: By law, county election officials must wait until five calendar days after the election to count ballots with missing or mismatched signatures. Therefore, it may take some time to identify close races. State law gives county election officials time to fully complete the count.

    When will we see the election results?

    Arizonans – and voters across the country – will begin to see results from early voters and in-person voters at the polls on election night.

    But this is only a partial snapshot of the election results. In Arizona, voters can return their early ballots until polls close on Election Day. Every cycle, hundreds of thousands of voters cast their so-called “late early ballots.”

    Those ballots must be processed and subjected to signature verification, a mandatory safeguard against voter fraud. This means it often takes more than a week to get full results. The more short-term ballots that come in, the longer it generally takes to count votes and determine close races — which is often a certainty in Arizona.

    When will we know who won the election?

    Jennifer Liewer, a spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Board of Elections, said officials there currently expect the count to take 10 to 13 days.

    Election officials do not predict or “say” election results, but some media outlets do. The media may be able to announce the results of some races quickly, but others will likely have to wait.

    “While we will be counting ballots faster than ever before, we want people to know that it will take time to get results,” Liewer said. “Our races will be close.”

    Arizona lies at the center of the political universe. Don't miss a moment. Sign up for Republic Recount, azcentral's weekly election newsletter.

    Sasha Hupka covers county government and election administration for the Arizona Republic. Reach her at [email protected]. Follow her on X: @SashaHupka. Follow her on Instagram or Threads: @sashahupkasnaps. Subscribe to her weekly election newsletter, Republic Recount.

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