Was My Arizona Vote Counted? Here's How to Check

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Votes in the 2020 presidential election are still being counted in a handful of states, including the key battleground of Arizona. But how can you confirm that your ballot was counted?

Early/mail-in ballots

For those who cast early or mail-in ballots, you can check the status of your ballot at the Arizona Voter Information Portal website by entering your county, last name, date of birth and identification number (either your Arizona driving license/ID number or voter ID).

"If you are on the Permanent Early Voting List (PEVL) or made a one-time request for a ballot-by-mail/Early Ballot, you can check the date your ballot was sent to you, the date the ballot was returned and received by the County Recorder, and whether your ballot was accepted and signature verified," the website states.

For the most up-to-date information about mail-in or early ballots in Maricopa and Pima counties, voters can check the official Maricopa County Elections Department and Pima County websites. There they can check the status of their ballots by entering the relevant identification information, such as last name and date of birth.

What if there was a mistake on my mail-in ballot?

You may be contacted directly by officials if there are certain issues with your ballot, such as your signature not matching. Officials have five days to contact you in order to verify your identity and "cure" the ballot.

If a voter appears to have mistakenly voted for more than one candidate (such as by crossing out one selection and selecting another choice), a county elections board consisting of two people from different political parties, as well as an elections judge, will attempt to establish the voter's intent and fill out a new ballot to reflect the voter's choice.

Stray marks on any given ballot will not be detected by the ballot-counting machine, according to Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs.

Provisional ballots

A vote is placed as a provisional ballot when there are pending issues around the voter's eligibility, such as the verification of their identity if the voter forgot to bring a form of ID to the polls. The voter in that case would have five days to bring proof of ID to elections offices.

A provisional ballot is set aside until the pending issues are resolved. Those who cast a provisional ballot can check the status of their ballot at the Arizona Voter Information Portal by entering the county in which they are registered to vote, their full name, provisional ballot number and voter ID.

Votes at polling stations

Those who voted in-person at a polling station would have seen a confirmation notice displayed immediately after they completed their ballot and fed it into a tabulation machine.

Canceled ballots

A ballot will be noted as canceled online if you requested a mail-in ballot but instead voted in-person at a polling site. In that case, the mail-in ballot is canceled because you cannot vote twice.

Arizona polling site voters November 2020
People wait in line to vote at a polling place at the Scottsdale Plaza Shopping Center in Scottsdale, Arizona on November 3. As the vote count in Arizona continues, there are several ways to check... Getty Images

The latest count in Arizona

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden was declared as the projected winner in Arizona as of 2:50 a.m. EST Wednesday by The Associated Press following its analysis of statewide ballots.

At the time of writing on Thursday, Biden was reported to have 50.5 percent of the vote (1,469,341), while Trump had 48.1 percent (1,400,951), based on 86 percent of expected votes counted, according to data compiled by Reuters.
The graphic below, provided by Statista, illustrates how close presidential races have been historically.
U.S. presidential races since 1896
STATISTA

About the writer

Soo Kim is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. She covers various lifestyle stories, specializing in travel, health, home/interior design and property/real estate. Soo covered the COVID-19 pandemic extensively from 2020 to 2022, including several interviews with the chief medical advisor to the president, Dr. Anthony Fauci. Soo has reported on various major news events, including the Black Lives Matter movement, the U.S. Capitol riots, the war in Afghanistan, the U.S. and Canadian elections, and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Soo is also a South Korea expert, covering the latest K-dramas—including the breakout hit Squid Game, which she has covered extensively, including from Seoul, the South Korean capital—as well as Korean films, such as the Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated Past Lives, and K-pop news, to interviews with the biggest Korean actors, such as Lee Jung-jae from Squid Game and Star Wars, and Korean directors, such as Golden Globe and Oscar nominee Celine Song. Soo is the author of the book How to Live Korean, which is available in 11 languages, and co-author of the book Hello, South Korea: Meet the Country Behind Hallyu. Before Newsweek, Soo was a travel reporter and commissioning editor for the award-winning travel section of The Daily Telegraph (a leading U.K. national newspaper) for nearly a decade from 2010, reporting on the latest in the travel industry, from travel news, consumer travel and aviation issues to major new openings and emerging destinations. Soo is a graduate of Binghamton University in New York and the journalism school of City University in London, where she earned a Masters in international journalism. You can get in touch with Soo by emailing s.kim@newsweek.com . Follow her on Instagram at @miss.soo.kim or X, formerly Twitter, at @MissSooKim .Languages spoken: English and Korean


Soo Kim is a Newsweek reporter based in London, U.K. She covers various lifestyle stories, specializing in Read more