The Maricopa County Recorder’s Office says an estimated 3,126 early ballots were mailed to voters six days ahead of the scheduled Oct. 7 mailing date, blaming the mistake on its longtime election vendor, Runbeck Election Services.
The office said the ballots were printed correctly and sent to the right voters, and that the error involved only the timing of the mailing. Any ballots that arrive before the early voting window officially opens will be stored by the county rather than counted immediately.
“Upon consultation with the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, it was determined that the ballots remain valid and do not need to be voided or reissued. Voters may complete and return them normally,” the recorder’s office said in a statement.
Runbeck has handled ballot printing and processing for Maricopa County for roughly two decades.
Political Reaction
Speaking to reporters outside the White House on Monday, President Donald Trump criticized the county over the mailing. “Maricopa is a very, VERY dishonest county,” he said, adding, “They should be ASHAMED of themselves.”
Rep. Abe Hamadeh (AZ-8) also weighed in, writing on social media: “Maricopa says Runbeck ‘mistakenly’ mailed 3,126 ballots six days early. This isn’t their first ‘mistake.’ One error is incompetence. A pattern is a system. Runbeck touches tens of millions of ballots, and Maricopa inexplicably keeps handing them the keys.”
A History of Problems
Maricopa County has faced repeated criticism over its election administration in recent years. In 2022, printer failures at dozens of vote centers on Election Day were traced to the county’s use of longer 20-inch ballots on 100-pound paper. The county has also seen recurring disputes between the recorder’s office and the board of supervisors over election procedures. Separately, a hacker previously admitted to obtaining 633,000 voter records from the county in 2020.
