Maricopa election officials warn it will take "10 to 13" days to count votes

Talk of elections and Maricopa has become synonymous with chaos and suspicion. After starring, and not in a good way, in the 2020 presidential election and the 2022 midterms for its problems with ballot counting, Deputy Director of Election Communications Jennifer Liewer has asked for patience from county voters since results may take "between 10 and 13 days" to be released.

For the last several weeks, Liewer and the other election officials have been recommending the almost 2.6 million registered voters in the county, the third largest electoral jurisdiction in the country, to opt for early voting to avoid chaos on Election Day. According to data from the Board of Supervisors, more than 1.9 million voters have registered to vote early.

Liewer told the media that all eyes will be on Maricopa in the days following the election. "We do expect that it will take between 10 and 13 days to complete tabulation of all of the ballots that come in, but we ask for the community's patience. We want to make sure that this is a secure process, but we also want to make sure that it is an accurate process."

Election officials estimate that 2.1 million voters will head to the polls on Election Day. So far, around 400,000 have already cast their ballots. "We're seeing a little bit of a lag from where we were in 2020, but the last few days we've actually seen an uptick in turnout, so I am expecting that we will start approaching very close to those 2020 numbers," said Scott Jarrett, Maricopa County elections director.

"Our system is broken"

The announcement has led many people to speak out on social media. Many are concerned that there could be another round of the same voter fraud that has haunted the county for the past two election cycles. A large number of users, including Elon Musk on X, widely criticized the announced times, comparing them to other places such as Argentina or Texas where the pace of the count is much more agile.