Voters are set to determine the fate of several key races and ballot initiatives on Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 8.
Pima County voters can vote in person at one of 129 vote centers from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday.
This year, the county debuted a new voting process using e-pollbooks and vote centers where poll workers check in voters with an e-pollbook that scans voters’ IDs and confirms their eligibility to vote. The e-pollbook then sends a ballot specific to each voter to a ballot-on-demand printer.
The new voting model also replaces the precinct-based polling system under which voters were required to vote at the location assigned to them based on their residence. Pima County voters can instead show up at any of 129 vote centers across the county to cast a ballot regardless of the precinct they live in.
Those who received an early ballot should have mailed it by Nov. 1 to ensure it is received by the county recorder’s office in time to be counted by Election Day. Early ballots can still be dropped off at any vote center on Election Day.
Emergency voting will be available Monday, Nov. 7. Voters will be asked to fill out a form stating they have an emergency preventing them from voting on Election Day.
What’s on the ballot?
This year, Arizona’s voters will select new officeholders in key positions including governor, attorney general and secretary of state while deciding who will represent the state in one U.S. Senate seat and all nine of Arizona’s U.S. House of Representative seats. Pima County voters will select U.S. House of Representative members in Legislative Districts 6 and 7.
In Pima County, 14 Legislature seats in both Arizona’s Senate and House of Representatives are on the ballot.
Voters will also approve or reject 10 propositions ranging from giving the state legislature the power to divert funds from voter-approved initiatives to reducing interest rates on medical debt.
Several governing board member positions on the Ajo, Amphitheater, Catalina Foothills, Flowing Wells, Marana, Sahuarita, Tucson and Vail unified school districts are also up for election. Voters also will determine if 12 Pima County Superior Court judges will retain their positions.
For questions about Election Day, voters can call the Pima County Elections Department at 520-724-6830, but the call line will likely be busy on Nov. 8. For questions on voter registration, contact the Pima County Recorder’s Office at 520-724-4330. The recorder's office will also take calls answering election questions on Election Day.
A trial run-through of the new voting process for Pima County’s elections was held on June 24. The mock election served as a test of the new voting system the Pima County Board of Supervisors approved in February. Participants of the mock election were given pretend voter identification cards to cast votes on ballots from 2018 as part of the practice run. In the new process, poll workers check in voters with an iPad, or e-pollbook, that scans voters’ IDs and confirms their eligibility to vote. Pascal Albright / Arizona Daily Star
