Early voter turnout in Yuma County continues to shatter records
Thousands of early ballots received with just one week to go until Election Day
YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA, KECY) - The number of early voters in Yuma County is still on the rise with just a week out from the general election. As of the last 24 hours, roughly 42,263 voters have cast an early ballot since the early voting period began on October 7.
According to Election Services Director Tiffany Anderson, 3,600 people showed up to vote early in-person, and a total of 38,663 mail-in ballots have been received as of Monday night.
Election staff have been working around the clock to meet the demand, with many working long hours to make sure voters' voices are being heard this election.
Yuma County's Public Information Officer, Kevin Tunell, tells News 11 that because of the sheer volume of ballots coming back, the county requires a lot of manpower to meet the demand.
"Along with this large amount of early ballots coming back, each of those have to verified and put through a process before they're actually accounted, and that requires a lot of manpower to do that. So, you know… The sheer amount, the volume of early ballots that we got back even from the very beginning, it was very clear that in order to conduct the election, we were going to make sure that we had enough staff on-hand", said Tunell.
The fact that the U.S. is still grappling with the covid-19 pandemic in the middle of an election year has not been lost on county officials. Tunell says preparations have been underway for months to make sure things move along smoothly.
"We are as prepared as we could possibly be for a pandemic Election situation. Again, a lot of preparations gone into this I know that our Recorder's and our Elections Office both went into overdrive once the whole pandemic began, trying to identify how we were actually going to conduct this election. Things weren't just made up on the fly, they've been getting ready for this moment since last Spring."
If you still haven't voted yet and may be on the fence about this election, here is a link to our Decision 2020 resources page where you can find resources like candidate profiles, details about ballot initiatives, polling locations, as well as up to date information on the presidential race.
