Maricopa County recorder explains options for voters who still have mail-in ballots

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) — If you dropped off your early ballot in the mail, it’s now on its way to getting counted. If not, you’ve missed Tuesday’s unofficial deadline and it’s likely too late to mail it in. But you still have some options.

The Maricopa County Recorder and Elections Department says 77% of registered voters in the county are on the early voting list. There are more than 211 voting locations across Maricopa County. “You can use any of them so even if you’re living in Mesa, but you work in downtown Phoenix then you can see which location is closest to where you work,” Maricopa County Stephen Richer said.

He says if your early ballot is ready to go, you can take it directly to a drop box. “If you want to just take that green early envelope that you already put your ballot in, you’ve already sealed it, you’ve already signed it, you don’t have to wait in a line. You can walk in and drop it off in a secure box,” Richer said.

If you didn’t receive an early ballot or you want to vote in-person, he says that’s a simple process too. “Even if you’ve received an early voting ballot, you can still vote in person. What they’ll do is as soon as you check-in at an early voting location is they’ll cancel your mail ballot, so that’s an inactive dead ballot and you’ll get a new ballot printed.”

To keep ballots legible, the county is also switching away from Sharpies to ‘Pentel’ brand pens. “If you’re voting on Election Day, we need that pen to dry quickly because you’re going to feed it directly into the tabulation machine that is there at the voting location,” Richer said. Primary Election Day is Aug. 2 and all voting centers are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. You will be able to check waiting times online if you do choose to vote in person and want to try to avoid the line. The website for finding a drop box or voting location is: Locations.Maricopa.Vote The website for tracking your ballot is: BeBallotReady.Vote Or you can text “JOIN” to “628-683″ to receive text message alerts.

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