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FACT BRIEF

Is Arizona taking longer than other states to count its ballots from the November 2022 election?

By Austin Tannenbaum
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YES

Arizona's voting laws, which facilitated a large number of election-day ballot drop-offs, along with its lack of ballot-opening machines, are contributing to longer wait times for vote totals relative to other states.

A former Maricopa County elections official told NPR that misinformation about election fraud caused 110,000 more Arizonans to wait until election day to turn in their ballots this cycle relative to previous cycles. While Arizona allows voters to drop off their ballots at any polling location, Florida, which received far fewer election-day absentee ballots, only allows voters to do so at their county elections office.

Additionally, Arizona election officials lack technology such as "extraction" machines used in Florida to remove ballots from envelopes more quickly.

Other states still have ballots to count, but because the margins of Arizona's races are so thin, the state has yet to finalize results, prompting increased scrutiny.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
NPR Voter behavior and election rules contribute to slower counting in Arizona
Votebeat Arizona Nonpartisan local reporting on elections and voting
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is the state’s only independent, nonpartisan and collaborative nonprofit newsroom dedicated to statewide, data-driven investigative reporting. AZCIR's mission is to hold powerful people and institutions accountable by exposing injustice and systemic inequities through investigative journalism.
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About fact briefs published on Gigafact
Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.