Inside Maricopa County: Arizona voters share hopes and concerns amid high turnout

PHOENIX — Alison Cutler, a writer, spent about an hour reading and researching before filling out her mail-in ballot, she told the Deseret News outside a ballot drop-off and in-person voting center in downtown Phoenix.
“I’ve also been advocating for other people to do that too,” she said, noting the ballot is two pages long. Cutler declined to reveal who she cast her vote for but said she was “really happy to show up” and hopes others also exercise their civic duties.
When asked how she’s feeling about the 2024 election coming to a close, Cutler said, “There’s definitely fatigue. I would say that from any kind of standpoint or party.” Still, she said she feels curious to see the results and plans to have her friends over on Election Night to watch the coverage.
Eighteen-year-old student Powell Nash-Hayes cast his first vote in person and he said he was excited to witness the process. Nash-Hayes depended on Ballotpedia, a digital encyclopedia of American politics, and Artificial Intelligence, to do his research.
His thoughts about the presidential race? “It’s close.”
Nash-Hayes is right. A majority of national polling shows the presidential race between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump is expected to be close. That’s especially true in swing states like Arizona, where it all comes down to turnout.
Another voter, Virginia Havice, outside the same polling station at the Ability360 Sports & Fitness Center, said she feels nonchalant about this election. She took about 20 minutes to fill out the ballot in person.
“The last time there was an election, I kind of just watched as it went and it was a lot of anxiety and nervousness. So, this time, I’m just going to let it ride until it’s time to see who wins,” Havice said. “Whoever wins wins by the people.”
She created a pros and cons list, researched the issues that personally affected her, and went from there. “I did vote Democrat, and I did vote for Kamala.” For her, abortion rights, immigration issues, and the economy are top concerns.
“It’s more of a personal thing with Donald Trump. It’s not that I don’t agree with his policy on things, because there are things that I do agree with some,” Havice said, noting the Trump administration’s tax policies that created tax cuts for low and middle-income families. “Obviously, everybody wants more money in their pocket.”
She said she is excited for the political calls and text messages to stop, adding that she feels “a lot of tension” this election.
Mike, who declined to provide his last name, said he voted for former President Donald Trump. “He’s kind of self-centered, but for president of the United States, because of all these bullies in the world, you need a strong person,” he said. “Trump is not the ideal, but at least the man proved himself in the four years … we didn’t have any wars.”
Roughly 11 miles away from this polling site is the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center, where election workers are processing ballots around the clock, a recent initiative to get results faster in a state that is known to take weeks to finalize vote totals.
Maricopa County is one of the biggest counties by population in the U.S., in addition to being a swing district.
As of Sunday, this county alone had received about 1.5 million early ballots, and expects another 600,000 ballots between Monday and Tuesday.
Zooming out, more than 2.3 million voters in the Grand Canyon State have already cast their vote ahead of Election Day, according to the database created by Uplift Strategies. That’s more than 53% of the state’s turnout of registered voters so far. Republicans are leading in ballot returns with 924,524, compared to the 736,569 ballots returned by Democrats.
The GOP has an advantage of about 150,000 registered voters in Arizona this time, as well as in 2016 and 2020.
Last week, a Maricopa County judge ruled that Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes had to release the list of names of the registered voters who did not provide proof of citizenship. The list includes around 218,000 names.
A computer glitch previously allowed these voters to register without providing the required proof. The source of the issue can be traced back to the state’s Motor Vehicle Division. The transportation agency reported it had the proof on file, but in reality, it didn’t. That’s because any driver’s license issued before 1996 didn’t require citizenship documentation
The court did not ask the voters to be stripped from the registration list. Still, Fontes has pushed back on releasing the names, saying the voters on the list could be targeted and face harassment, as the Arizona Capitol Times reported.
Late Monday, Fontes released the list, according to The New York Times.
Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer said his office discovered this issue two months ago and filed a lawsuit against the secretary of state. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled in Richer’s favor. Legal interest group Citizen AG then pursued a lawsuit to make the list public.
These voters’ ballots will still be counted, Richer said at a press conference Monday afternoon.
But moving forward, the secretary will work with Arizona counties in acquiring the required proof. “We are not going to be doing that over the next few days because we do not want anyone confused that it has any impact on this particular election,” added Richer.
Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates said he is thrilled by the voter participation in this election. As his office works to work through the final stretch, he has a request for voters.
“We’re asking for our residents to be good citizens,” he said, “and in particular, for those people who are involved in these elections, if, you know, unfortunately, they’re not successful, we’re asking them to accept these results and move on, and congratulate the winner.”