It will take between ten and 13 days to tabulate all the votes in Maricopa County, Arizona, according to election officials there.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Maricopa County Deputy Elections Director Jennifer Liewer asked for “the community’s patience.”
“This year, we do expect that it will take between 10 and 13 days to complete tabulation of all of the ballots that come in,” she said.
“We want to make sure that this is a secure process, but we also want to make sure that it is an accurate process.”
Assistant Manager Zach Shira advised voters to vote by mail or early in person in order to avoid long lines.
Over two million voters are expected to vote in Maricopa County this election. Around 400,000 have already voted, said Maricopa County supervisor Bill Gates.
Maricopa County, Arizona’s most populous county by far, was at the center of claims of election-rigging in 2020. County officials took 17 days to certify their results. Large numbers of voters cast their ballots early in person or by mail, as a result of the pandemic social restrictions that were in force.
Joe Biden won Arizona by a margin of just 11,000 votes in 2020.
At present, early voting data show that Republicans in Arizona have a nearly 40,000 vote advantage.
Although only mail-in ballots have been returned so far, the data show that 41.9% have been submitted by Republicans, compared with 36.3% by Democrats. Independent or third-party voters make up about 21.8% percent of the total.