The Pima County Elections Department completed counting ballots on Tuesday at approximately 3:00 p.m. and Pima County Recorder, F. Ann Rodriguez, announced the breakdown of the results of the provisional ballots from the Tuesday, March 22, 2016 Presidential Preference Election.
Of the 202,934 (61.96%) voter turnout in this election, 159,143 (78%) were vote-by-mail, 38,113 (19%) voted at the polls and 5,678 (3%) were provisional ballots. The party break down was 53.83% Democrat, 46.02% Republican and .15% Green Party.
The Recorder’s Office received 8,466 Provisional and 32 Conditional Provisional ballot forms from the Pima County Elections Department following the closing of polls on Election Day and completed its review of all provisional ballots, at approximately 5:00 p.m. on Monday, March 28, 2016.
Of the 8,466 forms processed, a total of 5,674 were determined to be valid and were approved to be counted. That is a validity rate of 67%. In our processing of the Provisional ballots, F. Ann Rodriguez says, “I directed my staff to track the reason why a voter was required to vote by provisional ballot and to track the reason why a ballot was disqualified.” Results are as follows:
Vote-By-Mail Issues:
- 4,289 voters had requested and been sent a vote-by-mail ballot. These voters chose not to return the vote-by-mail ballot and instead went to the polling place on Election Day to vote in person and therefore had to be issued a provisional ballot.
- 92 of the vote-by-mail voters had in fact voted their early ballot in addition to attempting to vote a second time at the polls. These will be referred to the county attorney’s office for attempting to vote twice.
- The provisional ballots for the remaining 4,197 voters who chose not to vote their early ballot were verified and processed to be counted.
Voter Registration Issues:
- 1,856 Pima County voters who went to the polling places on Election Day were not registered with one of the three political parties participating in the election (Democratic, Republican, Green Party) as required by Arizona state law to be eligible to vote in the Presidential Preference Election.
- 204 voters registered after the February 22, 2016 voter registration deadline.
- 107 voters requested and were issued a different political party ballot than their voter registration record.
- 71 voters were not registered within Pima County.
- 72 voters registration were in cancelled status.
- 35 voters were under the legal voting age of 18 years old.
Miscellaneous Issues:
- 293 voters went to the wrong polling location to cast their vote. You must go to your assigned polling location to cast your ballot.
- 24 provisional ballots were not signed by the voter.
- 3 voters tried voting multiple ballots.
- 3 voter’s identity could not be confirmed.
32 Conditional Provisional ballots were issued for insufficient or no identification at the polls. These voters were instructed when issued the conditional provisional ballot that they had until 5:00 p.m. on Friday, March 25, 2016 to show proper identification for their ballot to be counted. Of the 32 issued, one of the conditional provisional ballots was counted, as the voter contacted our office to confirm their identity as required by state law.
In this election, as in past elections, the majority of provisional ballots were due to voters receiving a vote-by-mail ballot but instead choosing to go to the polls on Election Day.
The Pima County Recorder office had already started last week to mail out new voter notification cards to all registered voters in Pima County. This mailing process to notify all voters will take a little over a week to complete since approximately 495,000 voter notification cards are being mailed.
This voter notification card is one form of identification voters can use when they go to their polling location.
Voters who were issued a provisional or conditional provisional ballot can check to see if their ballot counted by going to our website, www.recorder.pima.gov and clicking on the Provisional Ballot Status link. To check the status you must have the receipt number issued to you at the polling place. Voters who have misplaced the receipt or have any questions with any information printed on their new card should call the Recorder’s Office at 520-724-4330.