Maricopa County will nearly quadruple polling places for presidential primary as compared to 2016

Andrew Oxford | The Republic | azcentral.com

Maricopa County plans to open 219 polling places for the presidential preference election in March, far more than the 60 used nearly four years ago, when voters encountered enormous lines and chaos at voting sites.

The board of supervisors approved a plan this week that calls for 40 early polling places where voters can cast ballots regardless of their precinct. Nine of those sites will open Feb. 19. All 40 will be open from March 9 through March 13. That is an increase from just three during the presidential preference election in 2016.

"We were just not prepared," Supervisor Steve Gallardo said of 2016.

A total of about 219 sites will be open on Election Day, March 17. Forty of those polling places will be "vote anywhere" locations.

Only voters registered as Democrats can cast ballots. Republicans are forgoing a presidential preference election as they stick with incumbent President Donald Trump. But Democrats in Arizona are set to choose between 18 potential nominees, at least for now.

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Gallardo added that he believes the county is ready for 2020 but needs to be on its toes.

"You have quite a few of the candidates who are in the race and are self-funding and they aren't going anywhere. They're going to the convention," he said.

A report by the county elections department forecasts anywhere from 76,000 to 108,000 voters will turn out on Election Day.

But 79% of active Democratic voters in the county are on the permanent early voting list and will get a ballot by mail.

Including voters who cast ballots early and submit ballots by mail, as many as 429,000 voters are expected to participate across the county.

In turn, the county is planning on increasing the number of check-in stations for voters from 120 in 2016 to 1,400 and recruit 1,500 poll workers.

Maricopa County elections director Scott Jarrett said the goal is to keep waiting times to a maximum of 30 minutes during the busiest moments.

The county has also upgraded its vote counting equipment from machines that date back to the 1990s.

In turn, county officials are changing the design of the ballots. Voters will fill in ovals rather than arrows, which will be easier and lead to smoother counting, Jarrett said.

Contact Andrew Oxford at andrew.oxford@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter at @andrewboxford.