Yuma County officially launches ballot cam
Voters will have the opportunity to watch democracy in action now through Election Day
Yuma County launched a new ballot cam at the Elections Department downtown at 7 A.M. Wednesday morning, giving the public a unique way to watch the U.S. electoral process in action.
The recordings are public record, meaning anyone is able to take a peek. Yuma County's Election Services Director, Tiffany Anderson, spoke with News 11 about the purpose of the ballot cam and why it's important.
"The ballot cam is helpful for this individuals who are curious about our process. So we do get a lot of calls of how do I know my ballot was tabulated? And although we don't track individual ballots through the tabulator, that gives people peace of mind to see the process in action and feel like they really are a part of our democracy", said Anderson.
The ballot cam was implemented in 2008 through a statute passed in Arizona, which requires each county to provide a live feed of the ballots being counted.
This comes as Yuma County is seeing record-breaking early voter turnout. Anderson said more than 26,000 early ballots have already been received, and according to the Recorder's Office, the cumulative total for all early ballots stands at 28,667 as of Wednesday.
In addition to that, there are now 102,000 registered voters in Yuma County, compared to 96,000 in the primary election just a few months ago. When you crunch those numbers, this means that more than a quarter of registered voters in the county have already cast their ballot.
News 11 spoke with the Recorder's Office about the massive turnout, and praised staffers for the hard work and dedication they've been putting in throughout the whole election process, with many of them working 14 hour days on a regular basis. With less than two weeks to go until the big day, it's likely the workload is only going to get bigger.
The ballot cam will be online for the remainder of the election, and will be recording 24/7. If you'd like to watch it, just head over to the county's website.
