Overview

The County Recorder is a constitutionally mandated office of every county in Arizona. A.R.S. Const. Art. XII, § 3. They perform similar roles to those that are often referred to as “registrars” in other states. The primary duties of the County Recorder include establishing and operating early voting locations across the county as well as receiving, processing, and verifying returned mail-in, early, and provisional ballots. A.R.S. § 16-542(A); 2023 EPM at 82, 83, 84, 177, 200.

Election-Related Duties

The key duties of the County Recorder are:

  1. Establishing early voting locations. [1] A.R.S. § 16-542(A).
  2. Conducting list maintenance, such as canceling the voter registrations of individuals convicted of felonies. A.R.S. § 16-128; 2023 EPM at 41.
  3. Receiving vote-by-mail ballots. [2] 2023 EPM at 71.
  4. Developing and implementing processes for secure ballot retrieval and chain-of-custody procedures. [3] 2023 EPM at 72, 76.
  5. Developing a written incident response plan, “outlining how they will respond to and report election incidents that have security implications and/or may disrupt election operations.” [4][5] 2023 EPM at 107.
  6. Processing and verifying voters’ affidavits and signatures of all early ballots and provisional ballots before the ballots are transferred to the County Elections Director for “electronic tabulation at the central counting place.” 2023 EPM at 82, 83, 84, 177, 200.
  7. Accepting documentation from individuals curing their provisional ballots. *2023 EPM* at 184.
  8. Performing “all necessary audits” and addressing “any discrepancies” before the Board of Supervisors can canvass the election results. [6] 2023 EPM at 248.
  9. Submitting a provisional ballot report to the Secretary of State after each primary and general election canvass. [7] 2023 EPM at 249.
  10. Submitting an accessibility report to the Secretary of State after each primary and general election canvass.[8] 2023 EPM at 249.
  11. Submitting [9] a voter education report to the Secretary of State. [10] 2023 EPM at 250.
  12. Submitting an early voting report to the Secretary of State. [11] *2023 EPM* at 250.

Selection and Vacancy Information