Arizona county that will play major role in deciding election is desperately searching for more vote counters

Maricopa County is seeking election workers following a record-breaking surge of early voters — four years after the Arizona county became the target of Donald Trump’s election fraud claims.

Dubbed the “nation’s ultimate swing county” by the Associated Press, Maricopa County could determine the presidential race. But first, they need to find more early voter tabulators as over one million people have already cast their ballots early, officials said.

The Maricopa County Recorder’s office “URGENTLY needs additional help processing early ballots,” an email from the Maricopa County Public Health Department said on Wednesday. The message read: “Temporary assistance needed for the Recorder’s Office to assist in counting early ballots. This position pays $16 per hour,” according to a reporter from 12 News.

Elections officials said in a press conference last week they only had hired 584 of the 786 temporary workers — 74 percent — needed for this election, the outlet reported.

As of Tuesday, more than 75,000 people had voted early at polling centers in Maricopa County, making it “the highest number of early in-person voters” in the county’s history, Maricopa County supervisor Bill Gates said at a press conference.

On top of this, as of Tuesday, the county had received more than 940,000 early ballots by mail.

The county’s central counting facility is 90 percent staffed while the voting locations are 96 percent staffed, Scott Jarrett, the director of elections for the county, said at the press conference. “We’ve expanded our staff that we are hiring for this election even to include night shifts as well,” he said.

“In addition to election workers already on staff, county workers are stepping up to assist with the process and beginning tomorrow night, shifts will be taking place around the clock at Maricopa’s tabulation center to support these efforts,” Jennifer Liewer, Maricopa County deputy elections director for communications, told The Independent in a statement. “Democracy is a team sport, and we are grateful for the hard work and long hours that election and county workers will be doing in the coming days and weeks to ensure a smooth election.”

The influx of early voting isn’t totally surprising; officials have been encouraging early voting because there is a two-page ballot, which can slow down lines. It’s the first two-page ballot in the county since 2006.

“We’re telling people to make a plan in advance, take the time to do your homework, review the individual propositions and all of the contests,” Gates said.

Some voters told 12News that they had waited up to an hour to cast their ballot. One person said that wasn’t an issue: “I would have waited for 10 hours in this election.”

The voters’ steadfastness to cast his ballot is a reminder of the contentious nature of this election — especially in Maricopa County, which became the epicenter for Trump’s “rigged” election conspiracy in 2020.

Trump won the district in 2016, but lost it in 2020, making it the perfect scapegoat for such claims.

To combat these baseless claims, in 2024, the county — home to 62 per cent of Arizona residents — has been trying to promote transparency.

If the “transparency” tab on its website wasn’t enough, the recorder’s office also offers tours so people can see the facility firsthand and the wires in Maricopa County’s tabulation center are exposed, in hopes of quelling any fears about the systems getting hacked.

Still, election officials have warned that it could take 13 days before all the ballots are counted in the county, the Associated Press reported.