Next week, a new law will allow counties to set up centralized voting centers to replace or supplement neighborhood polling places. But Maricopa County officials say that kind of system wouldn’t work in the state’s largest county.
Voting centers would allow county residents to walk into any location and get a ballot specific to where they live. State elections officials say the system could help rural counties save money by closing underused precincts.
That’s not necessarily the case in Maricopa County.
Yvonne Reed, a spokeswoman for the County Recorder’s Office, said it would cost $15 million to set up such a system because the county would need to buy new software and equipment capable of issuing the correct ballots to voters and then sorting them for tallying.
Reed said Maricopa County uses at least 1,100 different ballot styles, and it would be difficult to make all of them available to voters at one location. Ballots vary in numerous ways: from legislative districts to school districts.
Full Article: Maricopa County shuns voting centers.