1000s of Pima County voters told early-ballot requests denied after Recorder shuts vote-by-mail form

The Pima County Recorder’s Office shut down their online portal to request vote-by-mail ballots on Saturday, Oct. 19, after officials became overwhelmed by the number of requests coming in. Instead, they posted a note at the top of the form page telling people to phone the office to request a ballot.

The portal remained closed through the deadline to ask for an early ballot, Friday, Oct. 25. Arizona law doesn't provide county officials the authority to summarily refuse early ballot requests, yet they emailed voters who had submitted the form to tell them to instead call in to get a ballot sent to them.

The number of individual early-ballot requests was likely larger than it would have been due to a delay in mailing ballots to many Pima County voters who were already signed up to get ballots sent to them.

The office alerted nearly 4,000 voters via a mass email that their requests for a vote-by-mail ballot in the Nov. 5 election had been canceled and advised them to call the office to request a ballot, according to Marion Chubon, chief deputy to Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly.



https://www.tucsonsentinel.com/local/report/102824_pima_early_ballots/1000s-pima-county-voters-told-early-ballot-requests-denied-after-recorder-shuts-vote-by-mail-form/