Arizona enlists county employees to help tackle a surge of 2-page early ballots

Associated Press

PHOENIX (AP) — Employees for Arizona’s most populous country are joining election workers in an around-the-clock operation to help process early ballots. Maricopa County ballots this year are longer than usual, and the envelopes need to be processed so they can be prepared for actual counting. The county was unsure how long it will need the 24-hour operation, which kicked off Thursday night. The Maricopa County recorder said earlier this week that ballots have been received from 1 million voters. That’s about 40% of the nearly 2.6 million people registered to vote in the county.