(The Center Square)- Supervisor Mark Stewart is “extremely pleased” with how the primary election went in Maricopa County.
On July 21st, Maricopa County held its primary election a week after the county Board of Supervisors and county Recorder Justin Heap ended their dispute about who controlled certain election functions in the state.
The primary election saw 677,387 ballots cast, which represented 27% of Maricopa County’s registered voters, according to county data.
The county set a record for posting 99.6% of the primary election results on its website in 24 hours, county data shows. The final election results were posted in six days, which tied a record.
More than 159,000 voters went to voting locations on Election Day to drop off their ballots or cast their vote, according to county data.
The data also showed the average wait time for a person voting was one minute or less.
Many people thought the primary elections were going to be chaotic, but that did not happen, Stewart told The Center Square.
“The staff, volunteers and poll workers knocked it out of the park,” he said. “With everything that was going on with the recorder and the board, to be able to not let that affect the way they executed is remarkable.”
According to Stewart, he was “pleasantly surprised” by how quickly all the ballots were tabulated.
He said he credits the new rules Heap implemented surrounding the signature verification process for speeding up the timeline.
The new process quickened the signature verification by 50% to 75%, Stewart noted.
The Center Square reached out to Heap’s office, but did not receive a response before press time.
With the general election coming up on Nov. 3rd, Stewart noted the county needs to do a “better job with logistics as it relates to voter flow.”
Maricopa County will see around a 65% turnout in the general election, Stewart said.
The county will see “nearly two and a half times more voters” in person in the general election than in the primary election, he noted, adding that the county needs more volunteers “to help work [the] polls.”
On top of this, he said Maricopa County needs better logistical organization to move people faster through lines.
Stewart said the county is increasing the number of voting terminals from the primary election to the general election from 240 to 280, a nearly 20% increase.
People at locations that have a high number of voters can expect to experience wait times around lunch breaks and before and after work,” he said.
