Arizona election results: 524,633 early, provisional ballots yet to be counted

[highplainsdem]

Source: KNXV-TV (ABC15.com)

PHOENIX - Secretary of State Ken Bennett said Friday there are an estimated 524,633 early and provisional ballots that have yet to be counted in Arizona.

The uncounted early ballot count was 352,437, and 172,196 provisional ballots were remaining.

The number as of Thursday was at 631,274.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona said there's "grave concern" about the number of uncounted ballots statewide and is demanding that an investigation be done.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/state/arizona-election-results-524633-early-provisional-ballots-yet-to-be-counted

[KaryninMiami]

1. Oh how refreshing! Another state joins the club.

Welcome, Arizona to the club of states who fucked up voting and say hello to Ohio and Florida. Who else is here? Anyone else still COUNTING VOTES AFTER 5 DAYS? Which other states had people waiting in line to vote for many hours? Come on in! Where do we live again?

[ThumperNM]

33. The common link

It is not a coincidence that each of the states with voter suppression and election problems are all lead by Republicans.

[Renew Deal]

2. That's enough to flip the Senate seat

Though the Dem would have to win pretty big. Could flip at least one house seat too.

[politicat]

4. also enough to evict Arpaio.

Early votes tend to be liberal leaning.

[Mr.Turnip]

5. What's been counted so far has already but Barber back into a slight lead in his race last i checked

[sweetloukillbot]

13. I think Barber's up by more than he was down for the last couple days.

I expect he's going to emerge the winner, and I'm almost positive Sinema is my new representative.

[Divine Discontent]

8. wow, that many votes sure could, since most are Dem. This crap has to stop.

We must demand the state's add enough staff to count votes quickly on election eve, who are trained, and there are standards that all states follow.

[kerouac2]

3. 172,196 p ballots x 45-minutes each = long time...

But verifying provisional ballots can take up to 45 minutes each, and each must be checked twice, he said - a process that may last up to the statutory deadline of 10 days after the election, on Friday, Nov. 16.

hmmmm.

link:
http://azstarnet.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elections/az-ballots-remain-to-be-counted/article_a6068044-12fe-5a43-8bf0-761eb3d73cef.html

[progressoid]

6. They're doing 1500 an hour.

Should take a week according to the article. That's not so bad.

[Cha]

7. KNR Thanks highplainsdem

[Coyotl]

9. Provisional ballots ensure people get to vote if they show up and are qualified

So, in some ways this is a good thing, that that many were not turned away. But, we must ask, "What causes so many votes to be provisional?"

[thelordofhell]

10. I worked the polls in AZ.........and these are some of the reasons

Last edited Sat Nov 10, 2012, 08:34 PM - Edit history (2)

The poll list had the voter marked as receiving an early ballot and the voter
(a) did not receive it
(b) received it and did not use it
(c) received it and made a mistake or otherwise damaged it
The voter would have to vote provisional to make sure the early ballot is NOT counted.....and the provisional ballot IS counted after the verification in the central office

The poll list did not have the voter on it, because
(a) the voter moved out/in of the precinct
(b) the voter fell off the registered voter list because they didn't vote in the last several elections
(c) the voter is in the wrong precinct
If the voter is in the wrong precinct, they need to go the right precinct......we had a map of all the pricincts close to us and a hotline to refer to the voter to verify which pricinct they could vote in and/or if they were still registered. If they are verified as being in the right precinct, the voter would have to vote provisional and it would be verified again in the central office.

Here's the bad part..........you HAD to vote in your precinct. If you didn't vote in your precinct, then during the verification at the central office shows you weren't in the right precinct, your vote will NOT BE COUNTED ........some people insisted on voting at our precinct even after I explained that fact to them (unfortunately, this is AZ law........in my opinion, if the voter is registered ANYWHERE in the state, they should be able to vote ANYWHERE in the state, and the central office should just have to verify that they are registered and only voted once)


Usually it only takes a few days to count all the Early and Provisional ballots that show up during election day. But there were so many people voting , it will take longer. All votes should be counted within the 10 day limit........if they're not, I do believe the SOS would authorize more time to count them all..........we shall see...........

[sweetloukillbot]

12. When you are saying district, do you mean precinct?

I know the redistricting changed everything up pretty significantly - I recieved a new voter registration card listing my new district (fortunately my polling place didn't change). Were peoples' votes not counting because they were at the wrong precinct, or because they were voting in district 8 instead of district 9? I can see that causing the ballots to be invalidated - because you'd be voting for representatives who weren't your reps.

[thelordofhell]

14. Yes.....precincts

precincts are within districts.......and in some cases, precincts had different ballots as well, because there were different school bonds to vote for.

I edited my original post to reflect this.....sorry, I was a bit loopy last night.......

[Tx4obama]

28. Were there a lot of folks without ID? Please see comment #27. n/t

[thelordofhell]

31. 3

The lack of bringing any photo ID to the polls is what usually gets that. The three people (out of 120+ provisional ballots at our precinct) were given instructions about showing the proper ID in time (the time is 3 days after, but it looks like it was extended to this Wednesday) and a sheet that listed all the sites they could go post-election day to show the proper ID.

When a person votes a provisional ballot, they get the top copy of the provisional form they fill out, and that part has an 800 number the voter can call that will verify that the vote was counted.

edit----we had about 750 people show up to vote at our precinct.........about 200 dropped off early ballots, around 120 had to vote provisionally and around 400 voted normally.

[Maeve]

30. Basically the same as in Ohio

The matter of voting only in the correct precinct is important in local issues (school levies and the like), so you only get a vote if the issue affects you. Add to the reasons the poll list was wrong (in Ohio, at least, this was true)--the poll book was misprinted.
In my Ohio precinct, most of the provisionals were because people asked for absentee ballots and never filled them out.

[LisaL]

36. SOS Husted send every voter an absentee application.

So whereas before people had to make more of an effort to fill out an absentee application, this year, some people who didn't intend to vote absentee filled it out because it was send to them.
As a result, a lot of absentee ballots were not returned.
But when people showed up, they were not able to vote, except provisionally, if they requested the ballot but didn't use it.
And OH only starts counting provisional ballot on Nov 16.

[KathieG]

11. How did they call all these races when they knew there were so many ballots still uncounted?

[DallasNE]

15. MSNBC Had A Segment The Other Day

That said just over half of the provisional ballots in Maricopa County were given out to Hispanic voters. Also, two days ago the provisional tally was 162,000 so the number is going up, not down. The number and composition of these ballot could change some results it they ever bother to count them.

[newspeak]

20. isn't that a hell of a lot of provisional ballots?

i grew up in phoenix, god the state seems to have gone down the toilet. got a bunch of racist teabaggers crying liberty, freedom; who are more than willing to suppress, disenfranchise anyone who doesn't believe the way they do. some kind of american-NOT!!!!

i don't even like to go down there to visit family, anymore.

[StarryNite]

16. Isn't it a coincidence the way

it's always the Democratic votes that don't get counted?

I would love to see Arpaio go! And who needs Flake?! I can't stand him either.

[BlueCaliDem]

17. Oh, no coincidence. This is clearly planned and widespread

across the nation.

When people are allowed to vote without voter suppression, intimidation, and partisan gerrymandered districts, Democrats win. A good example is California.

In 2010, Californians were offered a proposition that would take redistricting out of the hands of political parties and put it to a special commission comprised of Democrats, Independents, and Republicans. It passed.

Last year, this commission came together and redrew the lines of districts with the result that Democrats have now supermajorities in both the Assembly and the Senate, and Republican, not Democratic, seats in the U.S. House have flipped, booting out Mary Bono Mack, and soon, Dan Lungren. The irony is, this was a proposition put on the ballot by Republicans! When they saw the end result of the redistricting map, they immediately filed suit to stop this map from being used this election, but they were shot down. They actually thought they'd come out ahead this election!

[former9thward]

19. I'm in AZ and all votes will be counted.

These posts suggesting otherwise are just false attempts to bring drama into it. The number of provisional ballots is not unusual for a presidential election year. Most of the fault lies with the voters who IGNORE letters from the board of elections telling them where to vote.

[LisaL]

21. It actually appears to be a very large number. Even OH has ~3-fold less provsional ballots.

[poverlay]

18. A "precinct" worker in Phoenix told me they

Were getting 2 provisionals for every normal ballot..

[thelordofhell]

26. Then they weren't doing their job

If they were confronted with a name like Antonio Roberto Martinez Gonzalez, they probably tried to look it up under Gonzalez and sent them to the Provisional table when they didn't find it..........they should have looked for Martinez as well as Roberto...........the registration of a person's name could have been under any of those.

In the precinct I worked at, we had a line outside the door for regular balloting and yet the line to our Provisional balloting was never got over 15 and most of the day, it was non-existent.

[bushisanidiot]

22. How much you want to bet that hispanic looking folks were told they weren't on the rolls

and handed provisional ballots instead.

now, with no one looking, they can simply "spoil" those ballots by voting for more than one candidate in a category to erase the dem vote.

[grantcart]

23. If we had same day registering and voting in AZ like we did in NC then AZ would be blue.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

25. I lived in Tucson and then Mesa for many years

and love AZ. It's my second home. You are absolutely correct. I know that State.

And yes it would be blue if citizens were given an honest, efficient voting system.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

24. The Federal Government should withhold funding

for states that can't get their shit together. Give them a deadline and reasonable conditions.
If they can't comply, they pay for it.

There are States that would never tolerate this. AZ. call these people out. Humiliate them
and make them accountable for what is an intentional criminal act. Get behind the ACLU
and don't let them get away with this.

[Tx4obama]

27. IMPORTANT UPDATE: Voters that did not have ID have to present it by Wednesday to election office

-snip-

Matt Roberts, a spokesman for Mr. Bennett, said that all valid votes would be counted. Advocates and elected officials are worried, though, that voters who had to cast conditional provisional ballots because they forgot to bring identification to the polls, as state law requires, may not know they have to present their ID at the county elections office by Wednesday for their vote to count.

-snip-

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/10/us/politics/arizona-races-still-hang-in-the-balance-over-uncounted-votes.html?_r=1&

[Tx4obama]

29. Does anyone have a link to an Arizona dot gov site that has the results?

I haven't been able to find one yet.

[JusticeForAll]

37. azsos.gov nt

[cgnick]

32. Most of this could have been avoided...

had he been doing his job and not been working with birthers to keep the prez off of the ballot.

[judesedit]

34. I hope it's being monitored.I also hope they recount Minnesota's votes that went to Batshit Bachmann

She should've lost big time. Unless her constituency is as batshit wacko as she is.

[U2can]

35. What democracy in AZ ?????

A fish out of water starts to smell worse every day and so does the AZ election office with failures to get the ballots counted. Yes, I want to see an accurate total, but not a month later. A democracy entitles all those represented the opportunity to vote, but if a vote is NOT counted then it’s no longer a democracy. Nearly 500,000+ voters have been denied their right to have their vote counted. That’s a ½ million people in our state and this simply shouldn’t be tolerated in this day and age.