Counting votes — fast
Cathy Lucero of the Maricopa County Recorders Office removes memory packs from each precinct and downloads the vote count into a computer. Running totals scroll by on the screen behind her.

Two women sit on each side of the curb in the darkness amid government buildings in downtown Phoenix. Cars pull up after coasting past police officers and convicts dressed in black-and-white.
The women, old friends from Mesa, chat and laugh as they collect from drivers sealed plastic envelopes containing a black memory pack about the size of a VHS tape.
Catherine Chiniquy and Diane Miller rise from their lawn chairs to take the packages, which come from individual polling stations that report to the elections center at the Maricopa County Materials Management Center on Third Avenue between Lincoln and Grant. It’s an area that does not normally see traffic in the evening after government employees commute home. But it’s primary election night and the street is bustling.
They hand each package to a young runner who carries it inside.
“I don’t want to play a game of dodge-car,” jokes Ms. Miller about the cars passing in front of them.
The tapes are placed into a machine that takes about 30 seconds to download the precinct’s results, according to Karen Osborne, elections director of Maricopa County.
The actual ballots cast, including the provisionals, arrive in locked duffel bags and sealed plastic containers. They are hoisted by prisoners onto carts and then hauled inside a warehouse where they are scanned into a computer.
The voting center operates with about 200 to 250 workers, including part-time, full-time, and a good number of volunteers. It is one of 23 in Maricopa County, according to Mitchell Etter of the Maricopa County Recorder’s Office.
Most of the workers seem more interested in the experience than the chance to earn some extra money.
“This is just something we do and we enjoy it,” said Ms. Miller.
It’s early in the evening and everything is running smoothly, said Ms. Osborne, adding that the work will continue for hours.
“We’ll work until midnight and then tomorrow we’ll do the hand-count adventure,” she said late Sept. 12.
Hand-count procedure
The hand recount procedure, implemented as a result of a bill, S1557, sponsored by Sen. Karen Johnson, R-18, and signed by the governor, was cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice on Sept. 14, too late for the primary. However, Ms. Osborne said she wanted to see a smooth “administrative try” during the primaries.
“We need to learn for the general because it’s going to be big,” she said.
In another room, tables are assembled and the workers seated are responsible for separating ballot reports, signature rosters and other elections materials necessary to ensure election integrity, said Ms. Osborne.
Ms. Osborne dismisses existing skepticism of voting machines as she displays the paper- trail-producing machine made by Sequoia. She reaches into one of the small sealed bags brought in by the runners and produces a tightly wrapped sheet of paper that resembles a store receipt. She pores over the fine printing looking for an example of a cancelled vote — and the following completed vote cast.
“You can go through it and tell what the issues are on every one of these,” she said.
The Sequoia machines exist in every precinct in Arizona and are considered an improvement over previous machines that were manufactured by ES & S because they pick up various colors of ink used by citizens to cast votes.
“We shouldn’t make the public keep up with us,” she said. “We need to keep up with the public.”
The final canvass of the vote will be available Sept. 25.
About the hand count
law — S1557
For each countywide primary, general, and presidential preference election, a hand recount will be performed for four races (one federal, one statewide, one ballot measure and one legislative) from 2 percent of the precincts or two precincts, whichever represents the greater number of ballots. If the difference between the hand count and the machine count exceeds a designated margin of difference as established by a newly formed seven-member Vote Count Verification Committee appointed by the secretary of state, another hand court is required. If the difference in the second hand count exceeds the designated margin of difference, a third is required with an expanded sample size. If the third hand count results in a difference greater than the designated margin, all ballots from that race shall be hand counted. In all hand counts, if the results are within the designated margin, the electronic tabulation shall stand as the official count for that race. If the margin in a final hand count exceeds the designated margin, repeated hand counts of all ballots for that race are performed until two counts agree, and that shall be the official count for that race. Effective June 28, 2006.