Could it take two weeks to count all Arizona ballots in the 2024 general election?

Arizona officials have estimated that general election results could take about two weeks to finalize this year, which is consistent with past elections. The state’s most populous county, Maricopa, has one of the largest voting constituencies in the U.S., with roughly 2.6 million voters registered for the 2024 general election. Some races may come down to a few thousand—or even a few hundred—votes, meaning complete counts will be necessary before calling the winners. 

Certain state election rules, such as those requiring that early ballots returned on Election Day be signature-verified, scanned and counted after polls close, can also slow the process. In the 2022 midterms, these so-called “late earlies” represented one-fifth of all ballots in Maricopa County, leaving hundreds of thousands of envelopes to be processed post-election. Arizona also gives voters five days to “cure” problems with their ballots, including signature verification issues, after they are received. 

This fact brief responds to conversations such as this one. 

Correction: A prior version of this brief misstated the scope of “late earlies” in the 2022 midterms.

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