It’s the never-fail complaint the day after an Arizona election: It takes so long to get results.

“Why is Arizona so far behind in counting votes?” a Reddit user asked journalists from The Arizona Republic in an AMA conversation Wednesday.

Blame the early ballots that get dropped off on Election Day at the polls. Stir in increasingly competitive contests, and it adds up to days’ worth of waiting for a definitive result. Maricopa County estimated vote counting would run 10-13 days before every ballot is counted.

But help is on the way, if voters are willing to exercise a little patience.

A speedier option

Starting in 2026, voters who are rushing to drop off their early ballot on Election Day have the option of showing their ID at the polls, opening their early ballot envelope on site and feeding the ballot into the vote-counting machine.

That way, the ballot will get immediately recorded, saving hours of time that currently goes to checking the validity of the voter signature on the ballot envelope.

This is the result of a bipartisan bill lawmakers approved in February. It’s intended to speed up the voting counting process.

But there’s a hitch: It’s optional and it remains to be seen if voters showing up close to the voting deadline will slow down to stand in a line and show ID.

Rep. Alexander Kolodin, who sponsored the bill that made the change, said if voters understand that the tradeoff of taking a few extra minutes at the polls would speed up results, the new procedure could end many of the complaints.

“The more voters who choose to present ID, it can only be a plus,” the Scottsdale Republican said. He noted voter behavior can shift quickly: He pointed to GOP voters, who four years ago were urged to spurn early voting. This year, they got the opposite message and they embraced it.

That was proven by returns that showed Republicans outpacing Democrats in turning in their early ballots early.

Days of waiting is routine

The delay that has become a hallmark of Arizona elections is due to the many options Arizona offers its voters. They can get a mail-in ballot and return it via the mail, pop it in a drop box, or take it in person to an early voting center.

Then there’s the late-early voter.

“We have a substantial number of voters who take their early ballot and they kind of keep it on their kitchen counter for like three weeks, ” Kolodin said.

As Election Day nears, they realize they haven’t voted and they use yet another option: dropping it off at the polls. It’s quick and easy; they can avoid the line and deposit their sealed ballot in a box at the local vote center.

But those ballots take time to process because election officials have to verify that the signature on the ballot envelope matches that on the voting register. Verification can take time, especially if there are questions about the signature. The law allows five days to “cure” such ballots.

On Tuesday, 225,118 early ballots got dropped off at the vote centers in Maricopa County, the state’s most populous.

There’s also the factor of close elections. The Arizona state legislative races this year are a prime example. As of late Wednesday afternoon, Senate candidates in the east Phoenix/Scottsdale Legislative District 4 are separated by just 38 votes with 700,000 ballots yet to be counted in Maricopa County.

Two years ago, it took until late December for Democrat Kris Mayes to be declared state attorney general. She won by 280 votes after an automatic recount.

Donald Trump holds a 112,176-vote lead over Kamala Harris in the race where 2.3 million votes have been cast thus far and hundreds of thousands of Arizona ballots have yet to be counted.

Make early ballots come in early

Kolodin said he’s toying with legislation that could further accelerate the vote count.

It would require all early ballots to be returned in advance of Election Day, such as the Friday before. That would give county election officials time to verify the voter signature on the envelopes and get the ballots ready for tabulation ahead of the Election Day rush.

If a ballot were not in by that cutoff date, the voter would have to go to the polls on Election Day to cast a ballot.

It’s an idea that’s been broached before. It takes away one of the very convenient aspects of Arizona voting. But it would reduce the complaints and queries that, for decades, have followed an Arizona election.

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-228-7566 and follow her on Threads as well as on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @maryjpitzl.

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After Kansas State volleyball easily dismissed Arizona 3-0 (26-24, 25-17, 25-18), UA head coach Rita Stubbs did not accompany her team back to the locker room.

“Rita let us go, because she didn’t want to speak out of emotions, which we totally respect,” said freshman outside hitter Carlie Cisneros.

Cisneros and her team didn’t emerge from the locker room until about half an hour after the match was over.

“We needed to have a talk after the game,” Cisneros said. “That’s actually where we were. We talked for a while, and we’re just we’re going to, we will bounce back from this and it’s just fine tuning those little things. We’re close every single set. Same as last week. We are right there, it’s just finishing these games and we just need to keep talking to one another.”

Perhaps talking to each other is what the team needs. At Tuesday’s media availability, both Stubbs and junior outside hitter Jordan Wilson were asked about the leadership situation and how the upperclassmen fit into the team’s success or lack thereof.

Stubbs was specifically asked what she needed from her upperclassmen.

“For them to show that they’re upperclassmen and be able to put the team on their back a little bit when push come to shove,” Stubbs said.

Wilson was asked how the upperclassmen can help lead the team. She was careful in her reply, saying that it was the underclassmen who are taking that role for the most part. Wilson noted that the younger players on the team tend to be the more extroverted ones and are more willing to speak up, but that the older ones were willing to listen. She found positives in that.

“I think the underclassmen kind of beats (the upperclassmen) in the vocalizing their opinions or their feedback,” Wilson said. “I think the upperclassmen, they do give feedback, they are vocal, but I think that it could be to a point where you’re holding that person accountable, rather than just like sugar coating it. And I think the freshmen and…the underclassmen, they’ve really been showcasing that they’re okay if someone gets upset, or if something happens and the other person doesn’t take it well, because they know that they shouldn’t be taking it personal, and they make that known.”

This was a match the team certainly needed. The hometown Wildcats were coming off a run of playing eight of 10 matches against ranked opponents to start Big 12 play 2-8.

Many of the losses were close, but those count like other losses when all is said and done. With Kansas State on the schedule before yet another ranked opponent comes to town on Friday, the time to stop the bleeding was now.

Instead, the cardinal and navy Wildcats fell into the same old patterns. They didn’t close out sets. They let the opponent go on runs then tried to respond after it was too late.

Arizona came in ranked No. 57 in the RPI. KSU was No. 108. This wasn’t one of the top 25 teams that UA had been playing match in and match out, but the home Wildcats looked listless.

Stubbs may not have wanted to talk to her players while she was emotional, but she did speak to the media after the match. The head coach’s voice, which she has been losing since the match at BYU last Saturday when much of the team was sick, was almost completely gone. She admitted that the team played with little energy but took some of that responsibility on herself.

“One hundred percent,” Stubbs said. “If I don’t have energy, I think that’s how I’m going feel the team feels.”

It wasn’t just the team or the coach. McKale Center was quieter than ever. It is tough enough that Big 12 matches are played at 6 p.m. on Wednesday evenings when people are just getting off work. The small crowd was given little reason to get into the match.

Arizona led for most of the first set, but it could never shake the visitors. The lead was never more than two points and KSU came back to tie and even take the one-point lead on a regular basis.

Still, Arizona was the first to reach set point when a serve by Hodge trickled over the net and found the floor.

But K-State Wildcat Aliyah Carter rose to the occasion, as she did again and again in the match. The fifth-year outside hitter wiped away the set point with a kill. On the next point, she got the assist to give KSU its own set point.

Kansas State didn’t win its first set point, but unlike the other Wildcats, it did win its second to go up 1-0 in the match.

There were positives in the opening frame, though. Cisneros and Hodge were both effective and efficient on offense. Wilson wasn’t terribly efficient, but she was effective.

Cisneros had four kills without an error in the first set. She ended the evening with eight kills and only one error, but it took her more attacks to get those kills as the match wore on. She took 31 swings in all, ending with a .226 hitting percentage, but there were steps forward, especially in the early going.

“I’m working on playing with my team, honestly,” Cisneros said. “Offense changes as you go through the game. You know, it’s different from club. It’s different from high school. So I’m adapting to playing offensively in college, because I have my shots, but colleges will see the shots I have and take them away. And Rita is really emphasizing me learning more shots, expanding my game, getting better. And it was effective tonight, because my other teammates were doing their jobs and holding the block, and I was able to try new things.”

Hodge ended the night with nine kills on .129 hitting. She added seven digs, three total blocks, and two aces for a team-high 13 points.

Wilson had a team-high 11 kills but she almost matched that with nine errors on a team-high 37 swings for an .054 hitting percentage. She added nine digs, three assists, and one total block. She accounted for 11.5 points.

Arizona didn’t pick itself up after letting the first set slip away. K-State tied the second set at 4-4 and never trailed again. KSU went up 13-7. UA went on a five-point run to cut the lead to one point but never got closer than that. Before long, it was set point with the score 24-16 in the second.

The third set was a bit more competitive for a while, but not by a lot. Arizona took an 8-5 lead, but KSU responded with a 7-0 run. Hodge led a brief attempt at a comeback to pull UA within a point at 15-14, but KSU used a 10-4 run to close out the match.

Stubbs tried a number of lineup changes during the match to see if it could spark something for Arizona. She used all four of her middle blockers. While senior Alayna Johnson sees reserve time on a fairly regular basis, it was the first Big 12 appearance for freshman Adrianna Bridges. Bridges had one kill and one total block in her conference debut.

Arizona had no answer for Carter all evening. The grad student ended with 16 kills on .268 hitting. She added 12 digs for a double-double. Carter was one of three K-State Wildcats to have double-digit kills.

Arizona’s next opponent is No. 8 Kansas (20-2, 11-1). The Jayhawks dropped their first Big 12 match of the season in a 3-1 loss to No. 11 Arizona State on Wednesday evening. The two teams are now tied atop the league standings but the Sun Devils won the only contest between the two this season.

Lead photo courtesy of Arizona Athletics

An unusual and prolonged silence hung over Arizona’s U.S. Senate race, where Democrat Ruben Gallego holds to a shrunken lead over Republican Kari Lake on Nov. 6, with hundreds of thousands more votes to count.

Gallego, a five-term member of Congress and the favorite to win the contest entering the election hasn’t posted on social media since a tweet election night thanking poll workers for their service.

Lake, a former Fox 10 newscaster who cut into his polling lead in the final weeks of the race, urged her followers the morning after Election Day to ensure their provisional ballots are counted.

“This race is going to go down to the wire!” Lake tweeted. “We need ALL HANDS ON DECK to cure ballots and ensure the vote of every Arizonan counts.”

That could matter in her race if the results continue moving in Lake’s direction, as happened throughout the night as the counting continued.

In 2022, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes won her race with the votes that she picked up from provisional ballots. That race, which she won by 280 votes, was the closest statewide race in Arizona history.

Lake has also repeatedly noted President-elect Donald Trump’s victory and pointed to complaints about the pace of vote counting in Maricopa County in a handful of tweets.

Gallego’s lead, which once stood at about 120,000 votes based on unofficial results on election night stood at fewer than 60,000 votes the next morning. An estimated 40% of the state’s votes remained to be tallied.

“We are closely watching as results come in, and we’re feeling very optimistic,” Gallego said in a tweet. He thanked his supporters for their efforts.

There is at least one major tranche of votes from Election Day in Maricopa County and a much smaller batch like that in Pima County that is expected to skew heavily for Republicans.

There are also sizable numbers of Democratic-leaning early ballots that were dropped off on Monday or Tuesday in those counties that could match or exceed the number of likely red votes left.

Elsewhere, there are pockets of smaller, GOP-leaning counties with votes to count, but one of the counties with the heaviest share of ballots still to come is smallish, but Democratic-friendly Apache County.

Whoever wins succeeds retiring Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., who quit the race in March.

The uncertainty in Arizona comes as Republicans have already clinched narrow control of the Senate in January with victories in West Virginia and Ohio.

Democrats hold a 51-49 advantage in the Senate for now with independents such as Sinema who caucus with that party.

So far, Republicans have won at least 51 seats, plus Trump’s victory means vice-president-elect JD Vance will become the tie-breaking vote once he is sworn into his new position.

If Lake loses, it won’t be a mystery why.

Though she often cast herself as “Trump in heels” and had his endorsement from the night she first entered the race, Lake had the biggest vote gap between a U.S. Senate candidate in Arizona and Trump’s total in his three presidential campaigns.

Based on unofficial results through the morning of Nov. 6, Lake had about 91% of the votes Trump had received. The number of votes cast in both races is 99% the same, but Gallego has pulled in nearly 60,000 more votes than Vice President Kamala Harris has.

In 2016, U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., pulled in 9% more votes than Trump. In 2020, U.S. Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., received 99% of Trump’s vote total.

Four other Senate races remain undecided and will settle the GOP’s final margin in the chamber.

In Pennsylvania, Republican challenger Dave McCormick led U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Jr., D-Pa., by about 49,000 votes with about 95% of the votes counted, according to results tracked by the New York Times.

U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., led former U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., in that state by less than 8,000 votes with about 95% of votes counted.

U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., led Republican challenger Eric Hovde by about 29,000 votes with 95% of the votes counted.

And Republican challenger Sam Brown led U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., by less than 1,000 votes with 84% of the votes counted.