Thanks for the reference to the twitter posting by the Maricopa County Recorder and his detailed count of early votes still to be counted and day-of-election ballot drop offs.
Since this is a trend we just need more processor teams from both parties to count them on election evening —certify, verify, feed through counters, tabulation and submission. Three people should be able to process about 100 per hour and two hours with a 20 minute break should allow 900 three-person teams to run two hundred and seventy thousand votes in seven hours. Surely for one evening we can dig up 900 people from one of the largest metro areas in the country — we just have to plan for it.
I think Arizona needs to look at options to reduce the volume of mail in ballots. Something I didn’t understand when I went to vote in person last Friday in Pima County was that my in person, “I’ve provided photo ID” ballot would STILL be treated like a mail-in ballot and verified. Pima County then sends the envelopes to a central location to be re-verified, then opened and the paper ballot put in a “batch” to be counted by machine. If the machine can’t read it, then teams with members of both parties must work on creating a duplicate readable ballot.
Way too much delay.
Maricopa uses a different process on Election Day but lots of “mailed in” ballots - people on the damn Permanent Early Voting List voting on Election Day LIVE - are simply turning in what remains a mail in ballot that needs verification.
We need to get rid of the PEVL and go to “If there is a reason you can’t vote in person, give it and ask for an absentee ballot” system!