Get AZCIR’s latest investigations and updates delivered straight into your inbox, for free.

Yes.

All early, or mail, ballots in Arizona must be returned to the county recorder by 7 p.m. the day of the election. Early ballots received on Election Day or the Sunday and Monday prior are counted in the days following the election.

Ballots received after Election Day are not counted in Arizona, even if they are postmarked prior to that day. The post office delivered 99.9% of ballots mailed by voters to election officials within seven days in the 2020 and 2022 elections.

Voters in Arizona can check the status of their early ballots online through the secretary of state’s voter portal, and can sign up for ballot updates from their county recorder.

This fact brief responds to conversations such as this one.

The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting partners with Gigafact to produce fact briefs, or quick-response fact checks, about trending claims relating to Arizona.

Sources

Arizona State Legislature, 16-548. Preparation and transmission of ballot
Arizona Secretary of State, Ballot Processing
Arizona State Legislature, 16-552. Early ballots; processing; challenges
Arizona Secretary of State, Post-Election Procedures
National Conference of State Legislatures, Receipt and Postmark Deadlines for Absentee/Mail Ballots
United States Postal Service, 2024 U.S. Postal Service Election Mail Fact Sheet
Arizona Secretary of State, Voter Portal
Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, Signed. Sealed. Rejected.

Support AZCIR with a donation!

One-time

Donation amount

Monthly

Donation amount per month

Annually

Donation amount per year

Your support makes our work possible!

Sign Up, Stay Informed

Processing…

Success! You're on the list.

Whoops! There was an error and we couldn't process your subscription. Please reload the page and try again.

The Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting is partnering with Gigafact to produce timely fact briefs, or quick-response fact checks, about trending claims relating to Arizona.

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Unless otherwise noted, all AZCIR content is covered by a Creative Commons license.

You must credit us: For bylines, use “Author Name, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting.” At the top of the text of the story, include a line that reads: "This story was originally published by the Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting." You must link the words "Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting" to the original URL of the story. You must use our logo.
All stories must run in their entirety unless otherwise noted or agreed upon after discussion with AZCIR.
All republished content delivered online must have a link to AZCIR and include all of the links in our story.
All material must be attributed and credited prominently, and where appropriate for the material type throughout.
Photos, graphics and other visual elements are permitted for one-time-use only.
You have permission to edit AZCIR material to reflect changes in time, location and editorial style only.
You have no rights to sell, license, syndicate or otherwise represent yourself as the owner of our material. This means you cannot re-distribute our material separately, or place it behind a paywall. You cannot fundraise or sell advertising against our material.

If you are interested in receiving email notifications to republish AZCIR articles, email us here. Legal code behind our license. *This agreement borrows language from the “Steal Our Stories” page written by ProPublica.

Is it normal for ballot counting to continue days after an election?

by Carmela Guaglianone, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting
October 24, 2024

					<h1>Is it normal for ballot counting to continue days after an election?</h1>
<p class="byline">by Carmela Guaglianone, Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting <br />October 24, 2024</p>
					
<div class="wp-block-columns">
<div class="wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center" style="flex-basis:66.66%">
<div class="wp-block-group">
<div id="gigafact_yes_no" class="wp-block-group">
<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Yes.</h2>
</p></div>
<figure class="wp-block-image size-full is-resized"><img src="https://azcir.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/factBriefImage.jpeg" alt="" class="wp-image-22345" style="width:150px" /></figure>
</p></div>
<div id="gigafact_partnership_text" class="wp-block-group">
<div id="gigafact_factbrief_content" class="wp-block-group">
<p>All early, or mail, ballots in Arizona must be returned to the county recorder by 7 p.m. the day of the election. Early ballots received on Election Day or the Sunday and Monday prior are counted in the days following the election.&nbsp;</p>
<p>Ballots received after Election Day are not counted in Arizona, even if they are postmarked prior to that day. The post office delivered 99.9% of ballots mailed by voters to election officials within seven days in the 2020 and 2022 elections.</p>
<p>Voters in Arizona can check the status of their early ballots online through the secretary of state’s voter portal, and can sign up for ballot updates from their county recorder.</p>
<p>This fact brief responds to conversations such as<a href="https://archive.ph/A9bUE" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"> this one</a>.&nbsp;</p>
</p></div>
<div id="gigafact_original_thread" class="wp-block-group">
<p><em>The <a href="https://azcir.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting</a> partners with <a href="https://gigafact.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gigafact</a> to produce fact briefs, or quick-response fact checks, about trending claims relating to Arizona.</em></p>
</p></div>
</p></div>
<div class="wp-block-group">
<h4 class="wp-block-heading">Sources</h4>
</p></div>
<div id="gigafact_source_links" class="wp-block-group">
<ul class="wp-block-list">
<li>Arizona State Legislature, <a href="https://www.azleg.gov/ars/16/00548.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">16-548. Preparation and transmission of ballot</a></li>
<li>Arizona Secretary of State,&nbsp; <a href="https://azsos.gov/elections/about-elections/elections-procedures/ballot-processing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Ballot Processing</a></li>
<li>Arizona State Legislature, <a href="https://azleg.gov/ars/16/00552.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">16-552. Early ballots; processing; challenges</a></li>
<li>Arizona Secretary of State, <a href="https://azsos.gov/elections/about-elections/elections-procedures/post-election-procedures" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Post-Election Procedures</a></li>
<li>National Conference of State Legislatures, <a href="https://www.ncsl.org/elections-and-campaigns/table-11-receipt-and-postmark-deadlines-for-absentee-mail-ballots" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Receipt and Postmark Deadlines for Absentee/Mail Ballots</a></li>
<li>United States Postal Service, <a href="https://about.usps.com/what/government-services/election-mail/pdf/fact-sheet_election-mail_09242024.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">2024 U.S. Postal Service Election Mail Fact Sheet&nbsp;</a></li>
<li>Arizona Secretary of State, <a href="https://my.arizona.vote/PortalList.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Voter Portal</a></li>
<li>Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting, <a href="https://azcir.org/news/2024/10/16/signed-sealed-rejected-mail-ballot-signatures-maricopa-county/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Signed. Sealed. Rejected.</a></li>
</ul></div>
</p></div>
<div class="wp-block-column" style="flex-basis:33.33%">
<p class="has-text-align-center"><strong>Support AZCIR with a donation!</strong></p>
<hr class="wp-block-separator has-text-color has-medium-gray-color has-alpha-channel-opacity has-medium-gray-background-color has-background is-style-wide" />
<p class="has-text-align-center"><strong>Sign Up, Stay Informed</strong></p>
<div class="wp-block-jetpack-mailchimp"> </div>
</p></div>
</p></div>
<div class="wp-block-cover is-light has-custom-content-position is-position-top-center" style="min-height:273px"><span aria-hidden="true" class="wp-block-cover__background has-light-gray-background-color has-background-dim-100 has-background-dim"></span></p>
<div class="wp-block-cover__inner-container">
<p><em>The <a href="https://azcir.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><strong>Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting</strong></a> is partnering with <strong><a href="https://gigafact.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Gigafact</a> </strong>to produce timely fact briefs, or quick-response fact checks, about trending claims relating to Arizona.</em></p>
<div class="wp-block-columns is-style-borders">
<div class="wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center">
<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large is-resized"><a href="https://gigafact.org/"><img src="https://azcir-sandbox.newspackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/gigafact-logo-1024x205.png" alt="gigafact logo for fact briefs" class="wp-image-22184" style="width:404px;height:auto" /></a></figure>
</p></div>
<div class="wp-block-column is-vertically-aligned-center">
<figure class="wp-block-image aligncenter size-large"><a href="https://azcir.org"><img src="https://azcir-sandbox.newspackstaging.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/azcir-logo-771x129.png" alt="azcir logo for fact briefs" class="wp-image-7023" /></a></figure>
</p></div>
</p></div>
</p></div>
</div>

					<p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://azcir.org/news/2024/10/24/fact-brief-does-ballot-counting-continue-days-after-election-yes/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://azcir.org&quot;&gt;Arizona Center for Investigative Reporting&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/azcir.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/AZCIR_LOGO_SQUARE.png?fit=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;&lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://azcir.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=23976&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://azcir.org/news/2024/10/24/fact-brief-does-ballot-counting-continue-days-after-election-yes/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/azcir.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;</p>

Is it normal for ballot counting to continue days after an election?

Yes.

Sources

RELATED

Carmela GuaglianoneAZCIR Fact Checker