Rob O'Dell

The Republic | azcentral.com

The final count from Election Day in Arizona might not be finished until well into next week, with more than 600,000 early votes left to be counted.

As of Wednesday afternoon, there were nearly 628,000 votes still to be processed statewide, with 470,000 of those in Maricopa County, county and state officials said. Those outstanding votes will make it hard to finalize close races, including the one for Maricopa County recorder and some legislative districts.

Because many voters receive early ballots in the mail rather than casting a vote at the polls, the ballot count stretches beyond the first night. Many ballots returned early were counted by Tuesday night, but ballots dropped off in the final days are held to be counted after Election Day. About 2.1 million early ballots were mailed to voters statewide and 1.7 million were returned by Election Day, said Matt Roberts, spokesman for the Arizona Secretary of State's Office.

Most large counties, such as Maricopa and Pima, will begin counting early ballots again Thursday, after verifying voters' signatures on the ballot envelopes. Provisional ballots, used when voters' registration can't be verified at the polls, must be verified, then counted, and it will be well into next week until those votes are tallied, officials from Maricopa and Pima counties said.

Election glitch prevented vote counting for hours in Surprise, Wickenburg

As of Wednesday afternoon, there were:

53,500 total ballots still to count in Pinal County.

48,000 in Pima County.

20,000 in Yavapai County.

14,000 in Coconino County.

6,500 in Mohave County.

5,000 in Santa Cruz County.

3,800 in Yuma County.

3,000 in Gila County.

The remaining counties had few if any votes left to count.

ELECTION RESULTS: Vote tallies from top Arizona races, including Maricopa County

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