Officials reassure voters they’ll be able to vote without intimidation

In less than 24 hours, more than two hundred polling stations will open their doors in Maricopa County. Several county election officials assured the public during a press conference Monday afternoon that people will be able to vote there without intimidation on Election Day. 

“Voters can be confident that when they come to the polling locations tomorrow, they are going to be able to cast that vote without intimidation,” said Jennifer Liewer, the deputy elections director, during the press conference on the second floor of the county’s administration building. 

On Tuesday, 254 polling locations will open countywide at 6 a.m. and close at 7 p.m. As the third-largest voting jurisdiction in the country, more than 2.5 million people were registered to vote as of Oct. 5. The county expects around 250,000 voters to cast their ballots in person on Tuesday, which is about 10 to 15% of the county’s votes, while an estimated 250,000 drop off their mail ballot tomorrow, Liewer said.

“Our election staff is the best in the county. They really are the gold standard,” said Kate Brophy McGee, the chair of the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors. “They spent months preparing for every election. They work long hours, and they dedicate so much of their time to get where we are today, and it’s where you, as voters, can vote confidently.” 

In-person voters can cast their ballot at any location countywide or drop off their ballot if they received it via the mail. The county has already received nearly one million votes, as of Monday afternoon, according to Liewer. More than 4,000 community members will work as poll workers, while more than 800 will work at the county’s tabulation center. 

County officials will drop the first batch of election results — made up of mail-in ballots received before Oct. 31 — at 8 p.m. on Tuesday, an hour after polls close.

It’s already been a bit of a bumpy road for election administration in the county. In October, a vendor mailed more than 3,000 ballots six days early. Disproven conspiracy theories about the activities of live-streamed election workers swirled. The Arizona Attorney General sued the county Recorder to force the office to reinstate the voting registration of two dozen erroneously marked as non-citizens. Officials locked down the county tabulation center over reported suspicious activity. 

The Department of Justice will also be sending election monitors to the county on Election Day, which Liewer said the county believes will be a “good faith effort” by federal employees to “allow Maricopa County voters to come and do what they have the right to do.” Still, speculation of a potential Immigration and Customs Enforcement presence at the polls remains. 

But no matter what pops up on Election Day, county election officials wanted to reassure the public. 

“Our Elections Department should process and tabulate ballots as quickly as possible without sacrificing accuracy,” Brophy McGee said. “As with any large, complex process, obstacles will arise. However, the county election team is ready to respond. We have backup plans to the backup plans. We train for this. Every lawful vote will be counted.”

Maricopa County has been “working cohesively and communicating” with local, state and federal law enforcement partners to prepare for Election Day and “vet each and every threat that comes in at any given time,” said Frank McWilliams, the county’s director of emergency management and security services. 

“We are not going to disenfranchise voters by having a strong uniform presence at the polling sites,” McWilliams said, who previously served as a deputy chief for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. “We’re not going to be rattled, and our operations will continue on Election Day as planned.”