600K ballots already cast in Maricopa County ahead of Tuesday’s primary

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- Election day is tomorrow and thousands of Arizona voters will head to the polls to cast their ballot in the Republican and Democratic primaries. In Maricopa County, 210 vote centers will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday. If you have a mail-in ballot still sitting at home, you can drop it off at any of those locations.

“You can also come here to the Maricopa County Tabulation Center and we have a drive-thru drop box that’s under 24/7 video surveillance, it’s easy. You don’t even have to get out of your car. You can just put it right in,” Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said.

If you do head out to the polls tomorrow, Richer advises voters to use the Pentel pen provided. Richer says election officials tested a “whole bunch of pens” and found this one “doesn’t bleed through our ballot and also dries quickly.”

At this point, Richer says election workers have the signature verified on more than 600,000 ballots. As for voter turnout, Richer predicts voter turnout will be around 35 percent in Maricopa County for the primary, which is around 850,000 voters. The first batch of election results should be made available around 8 p.m. Tuesday night.

“Throughout the night as voting locations close and they get back to us, they bring the memory drives from the individual tabulators at the voting location. We’ll load those into our election management server and then we’ll post additional results so we’ll be up late for those hardcore election watchers,” Richer said.

Arizona’s Family Vote ‘22 special starts at 8 p.m. with comprehensive coverage and analysis with our Washington D.C. bureau, political editor Dennis Welch, and our team of reporters and producers around the state. Stay with Arizona’s Family for live updates on-air and online throughout the night.

Copyright 2022 KTVK/KPHO. All rights reserved.