AZ Elections & Results
The Arizona general election consists of voting on the President of the United States, all of Arizona's U.S. House of Representatives, Arizona Senators, state seats including all state senator and state house members, Corporation Commission seats, local and county races, and ballot initiatives.
AZ residents are allowed to vote by mail-in ballot, early in-person or in-person on Election Day. All general election ballots must be received on Election Day to be counted.
Corporation Commission
Arizona is one just 14 states that votes in their public utilities commissioners, of which there are five members. Three members are voted in during the general election every cycle, and the other two are voted in during the midterms.
US Senate & House Seats
Arizona Senate races happen every other general election cycle (the position is for 6 years) unless there is a special election. And House of Representative members are voted on every 2 years, so all nine seats (one for each Arizona congressional district) are on the ballot every general and midterm cycle.
AZ Senate & House
All 30 state senators and all state house of representative members for every Arizona district are on the ballot for every general election and midterm; these positions only last 2 years.
AZ Election Results
Arizona voting results begin to be announced the moment polls close election day. 24-hour news networks such as NBC News and FOX News announce results on national television as soon as counties report, and each network has an Arizona election results tracker page.
Local news organizations for Arizona also provide real-time results and often give more in-depth reporting on local races and ballot initiatives; look to azcentral, ABC15 Arizona and Fox10 Phoenix as such examples.
Early Voting & Polling
In-person early voting for all AZ counties take place October 7th to October 30th, prior to Election Day. The Arizona Voter Information Portal provides polling locations, hours of operation and the ability to check the status of your ballot, for all AZ counties.
Additionally, Maricopa County resident voters can use the county's Early Voting Ballot Status online form.
AZ Vote-By-Mail
A vast majority of Arizona voters historically vote by mail. All mail-in ballots must be in by the time polls close on November 3rd to be counted; Arizona does not count post-dated ballots that arrive after final polls close.
Arizona has been doing mail-in voting for a few decades now, and should have an easier time with tallying and announcing results, even for increased participation elections, over most any other state.
For reference, almost 88% of all votes for the 2020 primary elections were mail-in ballots, and 77.8% of all 2018 votes were mail-in.
Counting Early Votes
Arizona is allowed to begin processing early ballots as soon as they arrive, starting October 7th, and the state makes no distinction between mail-in and early in-person voting, when to comes to early voting results.
Arizona can begin tallying early vote results two weeks before Election Day (October 20th). But no early results can be announced, beyond participation counts, until all polls close.
Arizona's Early Voting Statistics are provided by the U.S. Elections Project, detailing how many ballots were requested, returned and numbers on registered party affiliations.
Given that Arizona residents vote overwhelmingly by mail-in ballots historically, expect AZ early voting results to be announced much sooner than many other states that have stricter rules; unofficial projections, including Arizona's pick for President, could be announced as soon as hours after the polls close.
AZ Polling Results
Track Arizona election polling data for the Presidential, U.S. Senate and U.S. House races on FiveThirtyEight's AZ polling page, one of the most trusted polling aggregate sites online. CNN also provides many national polls on Arizona's Presidential race.
Arizona Exit Polls
Local and national news outlets report on Arizona exit polls during Election Day coverage. Exit polls consist of questioning a select group of in-person voters, directly after they cast their ballot, on major federal and state races they just voted on, plus major issues of the day and how the feel in general about high profile candidates, and the direction the country is headed.
For example, during the 2016 general election, CNN interviewed 1,729 people and these were the Arizona exit poll results.
AZ Winners & Recounts
24-hour national news networks will be updating viewers throughout election day and into the early morning, making projections on races once enough data has been reported, and showing AZ voting results on a per county basis.
If any races or ballot measures can't be called election night, expect national and local news organizations to update you on all the latest until an official verdict is agreed upon. National news stations cover the major AZ races and local news tends to dive deeper into every smaller AZ race or ballot initiative up for a vote, like state officials or corporation commission seats.
Look for CNN, Fox News, ABC, PBS and NBC News to all announce real-time results for major Arizona races on their news channel and to post live election results on their election tracker web pages.
Local news outlets azcentral, ABC15 Arizona and Fox10 Phoenix (among many others) track, project and announce winners for all races and ballot initiatives on the AZ general election ballot throughout election night, and beyond if necessary.
Victory & Concession Speeches
Candidates typically make victory and concession speeches in front of a crowd of supporters shortly after both sides can agree upon the outcome. High profile race speeches, such as for Senate or a U.S. House seat, can air live or tape-delayed on national TV news channels.
Otherwise local news or the candidate's social media pages tend to post victory and/or concession speeches once a race is called.
AZ Recount Procedures
Arizona does not allow requested recounts. But there are many ways an automatic recount can be triggered, and there is no set deadline to complete these recounts.
All Arizona recounts are paid for by the county or the town that triggers the recount.
Automatic recount triggers occur under the following circumstances:
- Margin of defeat is equal to or less than 0.10% of the total vote (for candidates or measures)
- For state electors, if total votes are greater than 25,000 and margin of defeat is 200 votes or less
- For state electors, if total votes are equal to or less than 25,000 and margin of defeat is 50 votes or less
- If margin of defeat for measure/proposal to amend AZ constitution is 200 votes or less
- If member of state legislature's vote is decided by 50 votes or less
- If city, town or county elector vote (or subdivision of these) is decided by 10 votes or less
Exceptions to automatic recount triggers:
None of the auto recount rules apply when it comes to voting for - precinct committee members, school district governing board members, community college district governing board members, fire district board members or fire district board chiefs, secretary-treasurers or boards of any other special districts in Arizona.