Conrad Tolson
We discussed the General Election, including the results and why did it take so long to get them, at our November meeting.
Club President Ceil Levatino reported that after a lower turnout for the 2022 elections and the July 2024 Primary that Robson Ranch (RR) residents came through this time. She attributed the good turnout, in part, to hard work by club members to reach out to Republican members using phone calls, text messages, postcards, and door-to-door outreach.
But why were we still waiting at that time on many national, statewide, and local races? Votes were still being counted, but it appeared that Republicans would win every open seat in Pinal County, and that good Judges up for retention would be retained. At that time, four days after the election, about 70% of the votes had been counted. Reasons given by officials were:
* Problems with vote tabulation machines at many polling locations. Machines were having difficulty reading unclear marks on ballots (notably Pinal and Yavapai Counties)
* Cochise County’s tabulation machine completely broke down. (They had to get a replacement from Ohio.)
* Maricopa County vote count was slow (as usual).
* Apache County polls were kept open two additional hours due to technical difficulties.
* Many early voters didn’t return their ballots until election day. About 225,000 early ballots (not a typo) were returned at the polls just in Maricopa County on election day. Similar trends occurred around the state. Early ballots returned on Election Day are counted several days after the in-person votes because the signature on each ballot envelope has to be manually checked and verified.
* Descriptions for several of the ballot measures were unclear and confusing. That and the lengthy (two-page) ballot caused voters who hadn’t prepared ahead of time to take a lot more time casting their ballots.
* Many voters showed up with ID that did not match voter records. Voters without proper ID were allowed to cast Provisional Ballots, but those ballots had to be “cured” within five days and would not be counted until several days after the election.
Voters can and should check their voting status with the Recorder’s Office ahead of time. Some voters assumed that the Motor Vehicles Division (MVD) would notify the Elections Office of their address changes, but MVD does not do that. It is necessary to update your records for any change in address, even if moving within Robson Ranch. If you have moved here from somewhere else, let the Elections Office at your old address know so they can take your name off their list.
The RR Republican Club meets monthly, usually at 9 a.m. on the second Saturday of the month. If you would like to visit our club to learn more about what’s going on in our community and state, contact Ceil Levatino at [email protected] for meeting times and locations.