Voters should call the Pima County Recorder's Office directly to get an early ballot after problems have been cited with online requests to get one, officials say.
The last day to do so: Friday, Oct. 25.
An online form on the website for the recorder's office was "turned off" Saturday. Marion Chubon, chief deputy recorder, said she did so after determining there was no automated way to for the office staff to keep from processing duplicate requests.
The decision was made while there were still about 6,000 outstanding ballot requests, Chubon said. The office had received about 28,000 early ballot requests in total by then.
The office then sent out a mass email to voters with pending early ballot requests asking them to call the office immediately.
On Monday, the office handled about 4,000 phone calls that pertained almost entirely to early ballot requests. The office made roughly 3,600 request for mail ballots to be printed that day, Chubon said. And several thousand more printing requests were made throughout the week, she said.
"I would say that as of Monday the issue was complete (and) maybe a couple of stragglers on Tuesday" were processed, Chubon said. "We're confident that the majority of people have taken the initiative and have contacted us."
Chubon says a lot of the affected early-ballot requests were "duplicate" submissions. Some of them had already been registered on the active early voting list − which means their ballots were automatically being sent out − but had not received their ballot due to a mailing delay last week, or because of legitimate duplicate submissions
Chubon told the Star that this is an "extremely manual process," where once the office received a request through the online form, it would essentially create "a line in a spreadsheet," which office staff would then have to manually verify against voter registration information in its database.
Once verified, office staff would reach out to person making with request to call the office where security questions would be asked before the ballot was mailed
This online form, and the subsequent process, had been in-place when this current administration took office, Chubon said, but the problem was only identified during the primary because the office had not handled an election of this size until now.
Chubon said that the office hasn't been able to make changes to the online process because it had been inundated with other significant "programming" changes it was required to handle by statute.
"We had changes to requirements for documented proof of citizenship and residency, and then they were overturned by courts, and then re-applied... There was also (Motor Vehicle Department) out-of-state programming that had to be done so that we could interface with the state voter registration database," she said. "There was also (a law) that implemented that we have to send a notification to every single voter for a change to their voter registration record. And to-date, we've sent out about 60,000 of those... So all of this stuff had to be programmed in a very short window to meet statute."
State law requires the recorder's office have ballots in the mail within 48 hours once a “complete and correct request” is made, excluding weekends and holidays.
Chubon said that although they were concerned about butting up against that requirement, the issue with the online form was resolved by voters "taking the initiative" and calling earlier this week.
Still, Chubon said, if a voter has requested and is expecting to a ballot by mail but has not received it so far, they should call the office as soon as possible, at 520-724-5330.
