Letter: Why it took so long to count some ballots

It seems I am not the only one wondering why Arizona took so long to count ballots, so I did some research. According to the NPR, Fox 10 Phoenix and AZ Central news websites I read, there are a few reasons for this:

1) Maricopa County is the second-largest voting jurisdiction in the United States.

2) Voters are not mailing in their ballots because of election integrity concerns, so 290,000 ballots were dropped off on Election Day. This is a 59% increase over the 2020 elections.

3) Election officials must manually open the envelopes, verify signatures and then scan them, which is time-consuming.

Some have compared Arizona to Florida. In Florida, more people favor early voting, either in person or by mail. Florida, also, uses an extraction machine, which opens the envelope with a laser and uses a puff of air to make it easier to extract the ballot.

Something to be aware of: Maricopa County Chairman Bill Gates, who is overseeing the election process, is a Republican. He has vigorously defended the election process and vote counting integrity of his state.

Lani Jabeneau

Palatine