Pima County Recorder

Any United States citizen, who is a resident of the State of Arizona and Pima County who will be 18 years of age on or before the next state general election can register to vote. The "state general election” is the election that occurs in November of an even numbered year.

Arizona statute defines a "resident” as a person who is physically present in the location with the intent to remain. So if you are physically present in Arizona or Pima County and you intend to remain here, you meet the "resident” requirement.

You may complete the voter registration form now, but you may not sign any petition or vote in any election until you reach your 18th birthday. By completing the voter registration form now, you are in essence "pre-registering” but you do not become an eligible voter until you have reached your 18th birthday. Only eligible voters may sign petitions or vote in an election.

If you meet the residency definition above, you may register to vote. There is no separate residency requirement applied to college students for determining eligibility to vote. Whether or not that qualifies you for in-state tuition rates is a determination that only the University or College can make. Please note that if you are attending school here using a scholarship or grant from your home state, you should check with that scholarship authority before you register to vote here as the act of registering here could adversely affect your scholarship.

You can register immediately upon becoming a resident. There is no waiting period for completing a registration form. However, to be eligible to vote you must be a resident for at least 29 days prior to the election.

You need to complete the voter registration form and mail or deliver that completed form to the Recorder’s Office. The same registration form is used throughout Arizona. If you are registering for the first time and wish to vote for all candidates and issues, you need to establish your United States citizenship.

Yes. Two different registration forms are accepted in Arizona as voter registration forms. One form is defined in state law and is issued by either the County Recorder’s Office or the Secretary of State’s Office. The second from is issued by the United States Elections Assistance Commission and is accepted in every state including in Arizona. You can submit either the Arizona state form or the National Voter Registration form. Arizona has a proof of citizenship requirement. If you register to vote without providing proof of citizenship to either a county recorder or to MVD, you will be registered to vote but you will only be eligible to vote for candidates for federal office (Presidential electors, United States Senate and United States House of Representatives). If you provide proof of citizenship or the county recorder is able to obtain that proof from another Arizona county or the Motor Vehicle Division, you will then be able to vote for federal offices, state offices and initiatives and the local offices and ballot measures that pertain to your residence address. It is recommended that you submit proof of citizenship with your registration form or as soon as possible thereafter. The deadline to change status from a “federal only” voter to a full ballot voter is 5:00 p.m. on the Thursday prior to Election Day. Please note that voter registration forms issued by other states are not accepted in Arizona.

In Pima County, we have distributed registration forms throughout the county. The forms are available at the Recorder’s Offices, Motor Vehicle Division offices, all libraries, post office branches, city and town halls, political party headquarters and in other government buildings. Forms are also available at all public assistance offices. For a list of locations click here. You can also print out a registration form. We have provided both the state and national forms at all locations.

Yes. Arizona is one of only a handful of states in the country that allow online voter registration. You can register online at the Motor Vehicle Division website, servicearizona.com. In order to use that site, you must have an Arizona driver’s license or MVD issued identification card that was issued after October 1, 1996.

Yes, but the Recorder’s Office does not recommend that you register to vote in that manner. Under Arizona law, the petition gathering process is unregulated and does not fall under the authority of the Recorder’s Office. In completing a voter registration form you are providing very sensitive information about your identity to this stranger and then hoping that the person sends the form to the Recorder’s Office. With the high incidence of identity theft in Arizona, the safest practice is for you to complete the form and send it to the Recorder’s Office yourself or to register online at the MVD website.

The Recorder’s Office does not recommend any website other than the Motor Vehicle Division website, servicearizona.com. No other website offers truly online registration. What the other sites do is have you "complete” a form without your signature. The site then mails that completed form to you for your signature and you must then mail it in to the Recorder’s office. You are not registered to vote until you sign the form. With the MVD website, you complete the information online and the MVD attaches the signature from your driver’s license to the registration form. The MVD then sends the form to our office the next business day.

No. You must register using the Arizona registration form or the national voter registration form distributed by the United States government. Forms from other states are not valid in Arizona.

No. You can choose to select a political party affiliation if you wish, or you can decide to not be affiliated with any political party. The choice is yours to make and does not impact the validity of your registration form. If you leave the party affiliation choice blank, you will be entered into the registration roll with a notation of "party not designated” or PND.

Arizona law is very specific on what can be accepted to establish citizenship for voter registration purposes. If you have an Arizona driver’s license or MVD issued identification card that was issued after October 1, 1996, the number from that license or identification card is all you need. Include that information in box 9 on your voter registration form. You may also provide a photocopy of your birth certificate, your United States passport, or your Certificate of Naturalization. If you are a naturalized citizen, you can provide the alien registration number from your certificate of naturalization. You can also present these documents in person at the Recorder’s office. If you are Native American, you can provide your Bureau of Indian Affairs card number, tribal enrollment number or tribal treaty card number. The following documents are not acceptable to establish citizenship: A voter registration card from anywhere and a driver’s license issued by any state other than Arizona. If you have a driver’s license from another state and that license shows on its face that you have established citizenship, you may present that license to the county recorder’s office to establish citizenship. A license number from an out of state driver’s license is not sufficient. If you have already established citizenship with any county recorder in Arizona or with MVD you are not required to establish citizenship again.

It is preferable that you complete the entire registration form, particularly if you have a fairly common name or if you are a twin with a similar name to your sibling. Under Arizona law, you must provide your name, residence address, date of birth, check the boxes on the form indicating that you are a citizen and at least 18 years of age and sign the form. The remaining portions of the form are optional.

The form is defined in Arizona statute. However, the optional information is often necessary to distinguish between two voters with similar names or to confirm your identity when we are speaking with you on the phone.

Yes and no. Portions of the voter registration form are public record while other portions are deemed confidential by statute. The portion that is public record is your name, residence address, mailing address, phone number, year of birth, occupation and party affiliation. However, Arizona law restricts this public information by prohibiting its use for any commercial purpose. This information may only be used for election or political activity.

No. The Recorder’s Office would prefer to have a phone number in order to contact you if there are issues concerning your registration or your ballot by mail. If you have an unlisted phone number and you are willing to provide that number to the Recorder’s Office for our internal use, simply write the word "unlisted” next to the phone number and we will not disclose that number to anyone else.

Under Arizona law, the phone number on a voter registration form is a matter of public record unless you notify us that it should be treated the same as an unlisted phone number. If you are completing a new voter registration form, simply make note that the phone number is unlisted and it will not be provided to anyone. If you have already completed a voter registration form and do not want your phone number provided to anyone, please call our office (724-4330) and inform one of our operators that you want access to your phone number restricted. The Recorder’s Office will then remove the phone number from the public portion of our records. Please note that we are mandated by law to provide the political parties with a copy of our database at least 4 times each year. If you have already provided your phone number to us, there is a good chance that it has already been provided to the political parties and they will not be notified of the removal of the phone until the next listing is given to them.

Yes. However, in Arizona only half of the prospective jurors are pulled from the voter registration database. The other half are pulled from the Motor Vehicle Division database. So if you have an Arizona driver’s license or identification card, you are already in the prospective jury pool.

No. Some people gathering petition signatures are volunteers and some are paid. Those that are paid are generally getting paid per signature or completed voter registration form. These people do not work for the Recorder’s Office or any government entity and are not subject to regulation. It is therefore not uncommon for them to be less than honest in getting people to register to vote. If you have not yet obtained your citizenship, you may NOT complete a voter registration form. Completing the form prior to obtaining citizenship is a criminal offense that can lead to your prosecution and may significantly impact your ability to obtain citizenship. It is therefore imperative that you wait until after you have fully completed the naturalization process to complete a voter registration form. Please remember that the Recorder’s Office does not recommend that you register to vote by giving a stranger your voter registration form. Once you have received your citizenship you should register directly with the Recorder’s Office or through the MVD website. Staff of the Recorder’s Office is usually present after every Naturalization Ceremony that occurs in Tucson to assist new citizens in registering to vote.

Quantities of voter registration forms are only available from the Recorder’s Office main office location at 240 N Stone Avenue You will be required to complete an identification form in order to obtain a quantity of forms.

Yes. Anyone can assist anyone else in completing the form. The voter must sign the form unless they cannot sign or make a mark due to a disability. If that applies, the person assisting must sign the form where indicated in box 24 and you should provide the voter’s phone number so that we can confirm their information. You should also clearly indicate on the registration form that the voter is not able to sign the form due to a disability.

Federal law mandates that jurisdictions with a sufficiently large population of persons speaking a language other than English must provide voter and election information in those other languages. Under that federal law, all Arizona election materials including voter registration forms must be provided in English and Spanish.

The second page is your receipt showing that you completed the registration form. You should keep that receipt as proof that you have completed your registration form until you receive confirmation of registration from the Recorder’s office.

Under Arizona law, the Recorder’s Office is required to send you a confirmation of voter registration within 30 days of the receipt of your form. In Pima County, the confirmation is in the form of a voter identification card. Once you receive the card, please review it to make certain there are no errors in the spelling of your name, your address or your political party affiliation. If you do not receive that confirmation card within that time period, you should contact the Recorder’s Office at 724-4330 to check the status of your registration. You can also confirm that we have received your form and that you are registered to vote by clicking on the “Check Your Registration” link on the main page of our website. We recommend that you wait at least two weeks after submitting your form to confirm your information on the website.

Yes. If the form you submit is missing information that prevents your registration, you will be notified by a letter sent to the address on the registration form. That letter is sent within ten days or less from our receipt of your form. The letter will specify what the problem with your registration form is and will include a new registration form or other instructions on how to correct the situation. If you included a cell phone number or email address on your voter registration form you may also receive a request to contact our office regarding your voter registration.

No. Once you have submitted a valid registration form, you are only required to submit a new registration form if you change your residence address, change your name or wish to change your political party affiliation.

Yes. You can submit a written request to cancel your registration at any time. If you are convicted of a felony or are found by the superior court to be mentally incapacitated, your registration will be cancelled. If you move your residence and do not update your voter registration through two federal election cycles, your registration will also be cancelled. If you are summoned to jury duty and notify the court that you cannot serve because you are a convicted felon or not a citizen, your voter registration will be cancelled, even if you are only lying just to get out of jury duty.

No. If you provided proof of citizenship to another county recorder in Arizona or to MVD you are not required to present that proof again if you move to another Arizona county.

No. After you have established citizenship in this county once, you are not required to establish it again.

Yes. If you do not provide proof of citizenship and we are not able to establish your citizenship through computer checks with other Arizona counties and MVD, you will be registered to vote as a “federal only” voter. You will be eligible to vote for candidates for federal office but not for any state or local issues. You can present proof of citizenship after you register to vote to change your status to a full ballot voter. The deadline to present that proof of citizenship is 5:00 p.m. on the Thursday immediately prior to Election Day.

You can submit a voter registration form at any time. In order to be eligible to vote in an election, you must have completed and submitted that voter registration form by midnight on the 29th day prior to election day. The deadline generally falls on a Monday. If that Monday is a legal holiday, the deadline is moved to the next day, midnight on the 28th day prior to Election Day, a Tuesday.

No. Many elections that occur in Pima County are for specific jurisdictions such as school districts and cities and towns. For these elections your eligibility to vote is determined by your residence address. If your residence address is within the territorial limits of the jurisdiction, you will be eligible to vote. If it is outside the territorial boundaries of the jurisdiction, you will not be eligible. Please note that whether or not you are eligible is NOT determined based on the post office designator for your address. In other words, although many addresses in Pima County list "Tucson” as the postal city designator, the addresses are outside the jurisdictional boundaries of the City of Tucson. You may therefore not be eligible to vote in City of Tucson elections.

No, there are four election cycles every calendar year. There may or may not be an election held during each of the election cycles in Pima County. The standard election dates are the second Tuesday in March, the third Tuesday in May, the first Tuesday in August; and the first Tuesday following a Monday in November. The statewide elections occur in August and November of even numbered years. Most city and town elections for council and/or mayor will occur as part of the statewide elections. Elections for City of Tucson council and/or mayor occur in the August and November election cycles in odd numbered years. In the same year as a Presidential Election a fifth election will occur for the Presidential Preference Election. That election typically occurs in February of that year but the date is subject to change.

Generally no. In order to vote in a county, you must be a resident of that county and ownership of the property is not determinative of residency. The exception to this rule is for certain special taxing district (water district, health district, etc) bond elections. If you live in one of those districts, you may be eligible to vote on a bond matter.

No. The Recorder’s Office does not determine the polling place for any election. Those assignments are made by the Pima County Elections Department which is a separate department from the Recorder’s Office. The polling places are not assigned until just prior to an election and are often determined by the jurisdiction involved in the election. Pima County does not own any polling place. Therefore your polling place can change from election to election. Prior to every election you should receive a sample ballot from the Elections Department and that should list your polling place for the election. If you do not receive a sample ballot, you can contact the Pima County Recorder’s Office at 724-4330 or click here to find the polling place and the districts for your residential address.

No. The Pima County Voter Registration database links to the Arizona statewide voter registration database, the Motor Vehicle Division database and the Social Security Administration database. Voter information is frequently exchanged between these databases to confirm citizenship as well as address other identification information. Through all these checks, not one non-citizen had been located in the Pima County voter database.

To report a voter’s death, we need official documentation of the death. Please mail, email or bring to our office a note saying that the person on the death certificate needs to be removed from the county voter roll AND one of the following:

• A copy of the death certificate
• An obituary that includes date of birth, where they lived, and family connections
• A letter signed by the court-appointed representative of the estate

PO Box 3145
Tucson, AZ 85702-3145

State law requires that we test each voter’s address at least once every two years. It is the policy of the Pima County Recorder’s Office to test the addresses more often. Once every four years every voter in Pima County will be mailed a new identification card. Twice each year our database will be compared to the Postal Service National Change of Address database. Under federal law, we are required to send correspondence to a person to determine if they have moved. If that correspondence is returned, we are required to make a separate second mailing to confirm that they have moved. If you receive mail from our office addressed to someone who has moved, please make note of that on the envelope and return it to our office. This is one of the main ways that we are able to keep the registration roll up to date. If you simply throw out the mail, we are not able to remove that voter from the roll.

Most election activities require a comparison of a signature to the signature on a voter registration form. If you sign a petition, vote early or vote by provisional ballot, we are required to verify your identity by comparing the signature with the signature on your voter registration form. Although you may not realize it, it is very common for a person’s signature to change over time. If we had difficulty in making the signature comparison, we will send you a letter asking you to update your signature. This ensures that we have a more current signature on file to make the comparison against.

Yes. In general, Arizona primary elections are "open” primaries. That means that you do not have to be a member of that political party in order to vote in the election. There are limitations. If you register as a member of one party with ballot status, you may not vote in a different party’s primary election. As a non-affiliated voter, you must pick only one party ballot to vote in the primary. In other words, you cannot vote the Democratic party primary ballot for Governor and the Republican Party primary ballot for Secretary of State. You must designate which one party ballot you wish to vote and once you make that selection, you cannot change your mind for that one election. The Presidential Preference Election is a closed election. You must be registered as a member of a political party participating in the PPE in order to vote in that election.

In order to change your party affiliation, you must complete a new voter registration form.

You can change your political party affiliation at any time. However, if you complete a voter registration form less than 29 days prior to a primary election, that party change will not go into effect until after the election is over. In other words, you must change your affiliation prior to the voter registration cutoff date or the change will not be effective for the next election.

You may use that address as a mailing address in box 7 of the voter registration form, but you may not use it as a residence address unless you actually reside at the office location. In order to validly register to vote, you must list your actual residence address on the form. You can have your mail sent to any mailing address you wish, but you must list your actual residence address.

Yes. Several people may fall into this category. Under Arizona law, if you do not have a regular residence address, you can register to vote by providing a physical description of the place where you regularly sleep (you can use the map portion of the voter registration form), you can use the physical address of a homeless shelter where you regularly stay, you may use General Delivery with the zip code of the location where you regularly pick up your mail, or you may use the court house address of 240 N Stone Avenue. If you use any of these alternative address locations, you must also provide a mailing address where you can actually receive mail. A significant portion of the Tohono O’odham Nation in Pima County does not have street names or addresses. If you reside in these areas, you should write the village and district names as your residence address.

We are prohibited from making a residence address change over the phone. Your residence address is one of the key factors to determine your voter eligibility. The candidates that represent you are determined by your residence address. Due to the significant impact a residence address change has on your voter registration, a change to that address can only be made in writing accompanied by your signature. We will compare the signature on the change request with the signature we have on your prior voter registration record to confirm your identity before we enter the change in the computer system. In order to change your residential address, you can send a letter to the Recorder’s Office requesting the change, complete a postal service notice of change of address card, sign it and mail it to the Recorder’s Office or complete a new voter registration form. Please note that if your family has moved and you are submitting a letter or the post office notice of change of address card, all voters who have moved from the address must sign the card.

Yes. When you contact our office, the staff member will ask you a few questions to make sure you are the voter prior to removing your post office box number as your mailing address. If you acquired a new post office box number, you will have to complete a new voter registration form with this new number. Please note, if other members of your household were using this post office number they will have to follow this procedure. Under federal and state law, the Recorder’s Office is required to test a voter’s mailing address at least once every two years. The mailing address is the key method that is used to determine if a voter has moved.

If the information on your voter notification card is incorrect, please call the voter registration office at 724-4330. A staff member will be able to review your voter registration form to determine the cause of the error. If the error was a data entry error, it will be corrected immediately and a new card will be sent to you with the next mailing. If the information was properly entered from the voter registration form, but the form was filled out incorrectly, you may be required to complete a new voter registration form.

Early voting is just as the name implies, voting prior to Election Day. In Arizona, a voter may cast their ballot as early as 27 days prior to Election Day in any election. Early ballots may be sent to the voter by mail, or a voter may walk in to an early voting site and vote early in person.

Click here for information about Voter Identification Requirements.

Basically yes. Before early voting was permitted, Arizona only allowed Absentee Voting. Under absentee voting, a voter could only cast their ballot prior to Election Day if they were going to be gone or absent from their home on Election Day and the voter was required to sign an affidavit to that effect. When the Arizona Legislature adopted early voting, the requirement that a person be absent from their home county before they could vote prior to Election Day was eliminated. So any registered voter may now vote prior to Election Day without specifying any reason for doing so.

All candidates and ballot issues are listed in the same order and in the same manner on both the early ballot and the polling place ballot. The only difference between the two ballots is that an early ballot will be marked "EARLY” at the top of the ballot. There are no other differences between the ballots.

Any voter who is validly registered to vote on or before the registration cutoff date that is 29 days prior to the election may vote early in any election involving their residence address. The registration cutoff date for an election always falls on a Monday.

All valid ballots by mail that are returned prior to the deadline are processed and counted. In fact, in Pima County and many other counties in Arizona, the majority of votes cast in all elections are by early voters. Ballots by mail that are returned in advance of Election Day are processed and counted prior to Election Day. By law the results may not be released prior to 8:00 p.m. on election night. The results from those ballots by mail are released with the first election results just after 8:00 p.m. on election night. Those ballots that are returned on election day or just prior to it, will be processed and counted as soon as possible after Election Day. In many elections, the political parties have observers present whenever ballots are being processed to ensure that the legal requirements are met.

The closeness of the race does not determine whether or not a ballot by mail is processed. By law, all valid ballots by mail are tabulated even when the results of the election are a landslide victory.

Please note that election results released on election night are "unofficial” results. The results do not become official until all ballots by mail and provisional ballots have been processed and tabulated. For small jurisdiction elections, that may occur within a few days after Election Day. For major elections, that may not occur for up to two weeks after Election Day.

There are several ways to request a ballot by mail. You can call the Recorder’s Office at 724-4330 and request a ballot. You can fill out the online form. You can also send a written request to the Recorder’s Office by mail. Finally, if you wish to vote early for every election, you can complete the form to be included on the Active Early Voting List. Just click on one of these links to request a ballot by mail or sign up for the Permanent Early Voting List.

For more information about AEVL read the AEVL FAQ.

By state law, a ballot may be requested beginning 90 days prior to an election. If the election cycle includes both a Primary and a General Election, you may request both ballots at the same time beginning 90 days prior to the Primary Election.

It depends. It is the policy of the Pima County Recorder's Office to allow a person to request a ballot for their spouse, parents may request a ballot for their child and children may request a ballot for an elderly parent. No one else may request a ballot on behalf of anyone else.

By state law, all requests for a ballot by mail must be received by the Recorder’s Office no later than 5:00 p.m. on the 10th day prior to the election. This date always falls on a Friday.

The deadline is designed to make certain that you receive your ballot in time to mark the ballot and mail it back to the Recorder’s Office prior to Election Day. The number of ballot by mail requests that are received on the last day determines how quickly they are mailed out. For city and town elections when the volume is low, the requests received on Friday afternoon are generally mailed on that same day. In large elections such as Presidential Elections, it is common to receive several thousand requests on the last day. These large volumes will then be mailed the following Monday. Depending on the mailing address, it can take anywhere from one to three business days for delivery in Pima County and up to five business days outside of Pima County. If the voter wishes to return the ballot by mail, the voter will have only a couple of days at most to mark the ballot and get it mailed back to the Recorder’s Office. Out of state voters always have the option of using Express Mail or another overnight delivery service to make certain that the ballot is received on time. All ballots received by the Recorder’s Office after 7:00 p.m. on Election Day must be rejected.

If you are mailing the ballot within Pima County by regular mail, we recommend that you mail the ballot no later than the Wednesday prior to the election. If you are returning the ballot from outside Pima County but within the United States, we recommend that you mail it no later than ten days prior to Election Day. If you are mailing the ballot from outside the United States, we recommend that you mail the ballot back no later than two weeks prior to Election Day. Voters who are sending their ballot from anywhere outside Arizona may also return their ballot by Express Mail or using another overnight delivery service at their expense.

By state law, the ballot must be received in the Recorder’s Office by closing of polls (7:00 p.m.) on Election Day. Our recommended time frames are designed to allow the normal postal processing time for your ballot so that we receive it on time. If you are out of state, you can always send the ballot by express mail or other overnight services at your expense. If you are in Pima County, you can either drop off your ballot at any polling place in Pima County on Election Day or bring your ballot to the Recorder’s Office. Although we send staff to the main Pima County post office location just prior to 7:00 p.m. on election night, if the Post Office has not been able to process your ballot by that deadline, it will not count. It is therefore better to be safe than sorry and choose an alternative method to return your ballot by mail in the last few days before the election.

Yes. You may still vote early, but you must do so in person at an early voting site. For every election in Pima County, the Recorder’s main office location at 240 N Stone Ave in downtown Tucson will always be used as a walk-in early voting site during normal working hours. During larger elections, the Recorder’s Eastside office located at 6920 E. Broadway, Suite D, and the Ballot Processing Center at 6550 S. Country Club Road, will also be available as walk-in early voting sites. For major election cycles occurring in the fall of even numbered years, the Recorder’s Office also has several other early voting sites open in regional locations throughout Pima County. You can find the location nearest you and the hours of operation by clicking here . The deadline for walk-in early voting is 5:00 p.m. on the Friday prior to Election Day.

No. Although early voting has ended, state law allows "emergency voting.” An emergency voter is a person who discovered after the close of early voting that they will not be able to vote at their polling place for some reason. This applies to persons who are required to leave town or discover that they must be hospitalized on Election Day or any other reason that will prevent them from being able to vote on Election Day. Emergency voting is always available on the Monday prior to Election Day at the Recorder’s main office location at 240 N Stone Ave and depending on the size of the election, may also be available during the weekend prior to Election Day. Check the Recorder’s Office website Early Voting Site link for the locations and hours of emergency voting. By law, emergency voting ends at 5:00 p.m. on the Monday prior to Election Day.

If you mail the ballot within the United States by regular mail, early voting costs you nothing. The Recorder’s Office pays the postage both ways. If you mail the ballot from outside the United States or choose to use express mail, overnight delivery or certified mail to return the ballot, you will have to pay the cost of the additional services. You should check with the postal service to determine the costs of these additional services.

The ballot by mail package contains several different items. There are sheets containing instructions, two envelopes, the ballot and an "I Voted Early” sticker. You should refer to the instructions to make certain that you mark the ballot correctly (completely fill in the oval) using the proper type of ink pen and that you follow the correct procedures for returning your voted ballot.

Your ballot will arrive folded. After you have marked the ballot with your choices, fold it back the same way it was folded when you received it. Mark the ballot using blue or black ink (do not use red ink) and do not use a marker that "bleeds” through paper. Ball point pens work best. You should always look at both sides of the ballot to make certain you have made the choices that you want for all races that you wish to vote.

Once you have marked your choices on the ballot, fold it back up and place the ballot in the white affidavit envelope (the one containing your name and address). Seal the white affidavit envelope containing your ballot and sign your name where indicated by the large "X.” Then place the signed white affidavit envelope containing your ballot inside the larger yellow envelope. Seal the yellow envelope, write your name and return address on the yellow envelope and deposit the yellow envelope in the United States mail. Do not return the instruction sheets. Be certain to wear the "I Voted Early” sticker.

No. Under Arizona law, before a ballot by mail may be accepted for tabulation, the Recorder’s Office is required to compare the signature on the ballot by mail affidavit with the signature on the voter’s registration form. This comparison confirms that the voter is the person who actually voted the ballot. If the white affidavit envelope is not signed and returned with the ballot, the ballot must be rejected and will not be counted.

Anonymity of the ballot is protected in the manner that the ballots by mail are processed after the signature is verified. The processing is conducted by the Pima County Elections Department which is a separate department from the Recorder’s Office. Further details on how they protect anonymity of the ballot should be obtained from that department by calling 724-6830.

The ballot system used in Arizona is an optical scan system. The ballots are tabulated by optical scan readers. The readers are machines that have been calibrated to read the markings on the ballots. The type of ink that is most likely to be recognized by the reader is blue or black ball point ink. Other colors of ink may or may not be read by the tabulator depending on the ink formula mixture used by the ink manufacturer. The safest choice is a simple blue or black ink ball point pen.

Since ballots frequently have issues or candidates printed on both sides of the ballot, you want to be certain to use a marking device that does not "bleed through” to the other side since this could cause the bleed through marking to be interpreted as a vote. We therefore strongly suggest that you do not use felt tip markers such as magic markers or Sharpies. Stray marks of any kind should be kept to a minimum. Once again, the safest choice is a standard blue or black ink ball point pen.

The easiest way to correct the mistake is to request another ballot. Call the Recorder’s Office at 724-4330 to request a replacement ballot to be sent to you. You can also bring your spoiled ballot to a walk-in early voting site location to obtain a replacement ballot in person. If you obtain a replacement ballot at the walk-in location, you will be required to vote that ballot at the walk-in voting site.

Yes. However, you will be required to vote by provisional ballot. A provisional ballot is a regular ballot that is sealed in a special envelope rather than tabulated in the polling place. Since voters have until 7:00 p.m. on Election Day to return a ballot by mail, we have to verify that you did not return your ballot by mail before the polling place ballot can be counted. Once we make that verification, your provisional ballot is then verified and tabulated.

No. A ballot by mail is an official ballot. Under Arizona law, once you have voted, you may not vote a second time in the same election. So if your ballot has been returned and processed, you have already voted in the election and you cannot vote again.

You can track the status of your ballot by mail online on our website. We update the status at several different stages: when your ballot has been requested; when the ballot was mailed; when the ballot has been received back in our office; when the signature has been verified and when it has been turned over for tabulation. If there is any issue during the signature verification stage, we will post a notice in your ballot by mail status link for you to call our office. The website updates occur in real time. If we receive your ballot from the post office, we typically have available the return date information on our website the same day.

In addition to tracking your ballot online, the Pima County Recorder’s office will notify a voter if there are issues with their ballot. If we have a phone number on file for you, we will call and we will attempt to text message that number as well. If we have an email address for you, we will send you an email. If we do not have a number on file or we cannot reach you by phone, we will send a letter to you notifying you of the problem. For some problems with a ballot by mail the only way to resolve the situation is by sending you a new ballot. We will include a letter explaining the reason we are sending you another ballot.

If you have already returned your ballot by mail and you are contacted by the Recorder’s Office, you should contact our office as soon as possible in order to resolve the issue since your ballot will not count until the problem has been resolved. Recorder’s Office staff will always identify themselves and leave a call back number.

If you do not have access to the Recorder’s Office website to track your ballot status, you can call our office at (520) 724-4330. Please wait 7 days after mailing your ballot to phone.

No. State law requires that the ballot by mail be RECEIVED by the Recorder’s Office prior to the closing of the polls (7:00 p.m. on Election Day). If you mail the ballot on Election Day, there is a significant chance that it will not be received by the Recorder’s Office by 7:00 p.m. and therefore must be rejected. The post mark date on the ballot envelope is not relevant in the timeliness of the ballot receipt. If you still have your ballot by mail on Election Day, the best way to ensure it is received by the closing of the polls is to take it to any Pima County polling place or bring it directly to the Recorder’s Office.

Generally, no. You must vote your own ballot by mail and sign the affidavit yourself.

The only exception to this rule is for a person who is unable to mark their ballot or sign the affidavit due to a disability or illness. If you are disabled or suffering from a significant illness, you may ask someone to assist you in marking your ballot. That person should mark the ballot in the voter’s presence in accordance with the wishes and instructions from the voter. The affidavit must also be completed properly. The person assisting must print and sign their own name on the white affidavit envelope where indicated for "voter assistant.” The voter’s assistant may not sign the voter’s name.

It is the policy of the Pima County Recorder's Office to contact the voter directly if someone else signed on their behalf. We want to make certain that the ballot was marked with the voter’s choices and in the voter’s presence before the ballot will be validated. So if you have someone else mark your ballot for you, do not be surprised when you are contacted by the Recorder’s Office.

Please note that the only time a person other than a voter may mark someone else’s ballot is when the voter cannot mark it themselves due to illness or disability. If a voter is out of town when their ballot arrives, no one else may mark the ballot for the voter. The voter merely being absent is not a valid reason for someone else to mark that voter’s ballot. The Recorder’s Office will mail the ballot directly to the voter at a temporary address upon request.

No. Under Arizona law, a person holding a power of attorney has no authority to act on behalf of their ward in any election matter, including registering to vote or voting. You may think that this rule conflicts with the rule stated directly above that allows a person with an illness or disability to be assisted when voting, but it does not. A person with a power of attorney has the legal authority to act on behalf of their ward even if the ward objects. In voting matters, the person assisting may only mark the ballot in compliance with the direction of the voter. If you hold a power of attorney and assist the voter in marking their ballot but sign using either "POA” "Power of Attorney” or "Attorney in Fact” by your signature, that implies that you did not follow the voter’s direction and therefore the ballot will be rejected. If you assist the voter and sign the affidavit using only your own name without reference to the Power of Attorney, once we confirm with the voter that you followed their direction, the ballot will be processed.

Early voting is one of the more secure methods of voting. While in the comfort of your own home, mark your ballot with your choices, place the marked ballot in the white ballot by mail affidavit envelope and then seal the white ballot by mail affidavit envelope with the ballot inside. You then write your signature on the white ballot by mail affidavit envelope. You then place the white ballot by mail affidavit envelope in the yellow mailing envelope, seal it inside and mail it. The Recorder’s Office will remove the yellow envelope but will not open the white affidavit envelope containing your marked ballot.

When the Recorder’s Office receives the mail and at all times thereafter, the ballots are only processed when at least two people with different political party affiliations are present to observe the process. When ballots are not being processed, they are kept in a restricted access location with multiple locking devices to secure that location. The locking devices include a computer tracked electronic locking mechanism as well as mechanical locking devices.

The Recorder’s Office staff will remove the yellow envelope and examine the sealed white ballot by mail affidavit for signs of tampering. If there is no indication of a problem, the signature on the affidavit will be compared with the signature on their voter registration form. A computer inventory is generated for each ballot processed and accepted by the signature verification operator. Once the ballots are processed, two other staff members (with different party affiliations) will verify the computer generated inventory with the actual sealed ballot by mail affidavit envelopes containing the ballots to ensure that all are present. The ballots (still sealed in the affidavit envelopes) will then be transferred to the Pima County Elections Department. The staff of that department will then re-check the inventory. The Elections Department staff is responsible for removing your ballot from the sealed white ballot by mail affidavit envelope and then processing the ballot for tabulation (the counting of your votes).

At all times when the ballots by mail are present in the Recorder’s Office, staff will only work on or handle the sealed ballot affidavits containing the ballots when employees with different political party affiliations are present. Political party observers may also be present to watch the process.

Lists of all voters who requested a ballot by mail and a separate listing of the voters who returned their ballot by mail are provided to the major political parties on a daily basis. The parties then use this information to monitor the ballot processing and tabulation by the Elections Department as an audit over the process.

At any time a problem is detected in processing a ballot by mail while it is in the possession of the Recorder’s Office, the voter is notified by phone (if a number is available) and/or by mail. If any ballot is to be disqualified, the voter is notified and provided an opportunity to correct the problem or receive another ballot. Voters can also track the status of their ballot by mail through the Recorder’s Office processing by visting Ballot by Mail Status Check.

Generally, if a ballot by mail is received by the Recorder’s Office prior to Election Day, it will usually be tabulated prior to Election Day. If the ballot is received on Election Day, it will not be tabulated until a day or two after Election Day. Please note that results released on Election Day are unofficial results and the results do not become official until all ballots by mail and all provisional ballots have been processed and the Board of Supervisors approves the official canvass of the election.

Yes. However, you will need to update your voter registration to your correct current address first. The fastest way to update your registration is to complete a registration form online at the MVD website servicearizona.com. Make certain that you update your MVD address as well since their system will use your address on file to complete the registration form. Please allow five days from the time you submit the online registration form for your address to be updated in the voter registration record.

In most elections ballots differ from precinct to precinct and within precincts as jurisdictional lines such as school districts and city and town limits lines occur. Therefore the ballot you would have received at your old address will not have all the same candidates as the ballot for your new address. In order to vote early, we must have your new address on file to send you the correct ballot.

You may also go to a walk-in early voting location and notify the staff that you have moved. They will provide you with a voter registration form and your changes will immediately be entered into the computer system. They can then generate the correct ballot for your new address and you can vote immediately at the walk-in site.

The last option is for you to go to the polling site for your new residence address and vote by provisional ballot. As long as you did not vote at the polling place for your old address and are in the correct polling site for your new address, your ballot will count. Immediately after the election, the Recorder’s Office will use the information on the provisional ballot form to update your voter registration record.

Your ballot was probably returned to the Recorder’s Office by the postal service marked "undeliverable.” Under Arizona law voting materials, including ballots, cannot be forwarded to a new address by the United States Postal Service. If you moved after requesting a ballot by mail or you moved after enrolling on the permanent early voting list, you should notify the Recorder’s Office as soon as possible to update your address. If you have moved, you may need to complete a new voter registration form. Once you move, any ballot mailed to you at your former address will be returned to the Recorder’s Office marked "undeliverable.”

No. If you know that you are going to be temporarily away from your residence and you have requested a ballot by mail by mail or you are on the Permanent Early Voting List, you should contact the Recorder’s Office at (520) 724-4330. We will mail your ballot directly to the temporary address. The United States Postal Service will not forward a ballot to a different address even if that is only temporarily being used as an address.

Yes! Pima County’s new Vote Centers will allow you to cast a ballot at any county Vote Center, whether it’s near your home, work, school, or wherever you happen to be on Election Day.

The Pima County Board of Supervisors authorized two new pieces of technology - electronic pollbooks and ballot printers – that make Vote Centers possible.

Just check in at any Vote Center and show your ID, which will be scanned by an e-pollbook. Your specific voter information gets sent to a ballot printer, which will print a ballot based on the various jurisdictions and districts where you live - Congressional, Legislative, Supervisory, Community College, or School districts, your city or town, and so on.

Everything else about voting at a Vote Center is the same as voting at a precinct polling location.

Voting Sites for the November 7, 2023, General Election are listed at Recorder.pima.gov/EarlyVotingSites.

In Pima County, elections responsibilities are divided between two separate departments. The Pima County Recorder’s Office is responsible for maintaining the voter registration rolls, processing early ballots and processing and validating provisional ballots. Gabriella Cázares-Kelly is the elected Pima County Recorder and she runs the Recorder’s Office.

The printing of ballots, the selection and operation of the polling places, the hiring and training of poll workers and the tabulation of ballots are the responsibility of the Pima County Elections Department. Brad Nelson is the Director of the Elections Department and he reports to the County Administrator.

Any question pertaining to polling places should be directed to Brad Nelson, Director of the Pima County Elections Department at 724-6830. Please note that election day is the busiest day of the year for that department, so you may have difficulty getting through to them on the phone on election day. The Recorder’s Office will be happy to forward your concerns to that department, but we may not be able to address your concerns directly

Polling places are selected by the Pima County Elections Department which is separate from the Recorder’s Office. Your concerns about your polling place should be directed to that department.

As a courtesy, we are providing this information. Please note that there are several factors that determine the selection and use of a polling site for a particular election. The county does not own the polling sites and therefore must have the consent of the property owner to operate a polling site on election day. Some sites may not be available for each election due to remodeling or other scheduled activities by the polling location property owner.

In addition, some elections do not include all voters in the county. These smaller jurisdictional elections involve school districts, cities and towns and other smaller government entities. These smaller jurisdictions must pay the costs of the election. As a result, some of these jurisdictions require that polling places be combined together as a cost savings method.

For some elections, such as the Presidential Preference Election, state law mandates that the county only have half the normal number of polling sites since the state is paying for the election. This requires that almost every polling site be combined with one or more other polling locations.

You can find the location of your polling site by Clicking Here. Enter your current residence address any time starting 45 days prior to an election to find your polling place for this election. You can also call the Pima County Recorder’s Office at (520) 724-4330 to find the location for your polling place.

The Elections Department or the jurisdiction conducting the election will generally send a sample ballot prior to election day that will include your polling place for this election. This information generally appears on the front of the sample ballot on the same page as your address. The Elections Department also routinely sends a polling place notification card approximately 10 days prior to election day that will also include your polling place.

Yes. You will be issued a provisional ballot. After the election is completed, the form you completed as part of the provisional ballot process will be used to update your voter registration to your new address.

No. A ballot by mail is an official ballot for the election. If you have already voted and returned your ballot by mail, then you have already voted in this election. Attempting to vote a second time is a potential felony offense. If you go to the polling place, the poll workers are required to offer you a provisional ballot. Please see the information below regarding voting a provisional ballot.

Both state and federal law mandate "fail safe” voting. If a problem develops at the polling place that prevents you from being eligible to vote by regular ballot, you are entitled to vote by provisional ballot before you leave the polling place. A provisional ballot is a regular ballot that is sealed in an envelope rather than inserted into the precinct tabulator. The information from the form attached to the envelope is sent to the Recorder’s Office the day after election day to determine whether your provisional ballot should be counted or not. If the decision is made that your ballot should be counted, the envelope will be opened and the ballot will be tabulated. If the decision is made that the ballot was invalid, then the envelope will remain sealed and will not be counted.

Since poll workers are required by federal and state law to offer a provisional ballot to any voter who appears at a polling site, voters can become confused as to the validity of that ballot. Merely because the poll worker offered the provisional ballot does not mean that the ballot will be valid. The poll workers must offer the provisional ballot to anyone who cannot vote a regular ballot. The validity of the provisional ballot is not determined by the poll worker so the fact that the poll worker told you your ballot would count or would not count does not make it true.

In general, a poll worker will offer a provisional ballot to any person:

1. Who is NOT listed on the poll roster.
2. Who is listed on the poll roster but either has no identification or has insufficient identification.
3. Who is listed on the poll roster but the roster shows was issued a ballot by mail.
4. Who is listed on the poll roster under a prior name.

The Recorder’s Office has provided a separate set of Frequently Asked Questions regarding provisional ballots on this website. If you vote a provisional ballot, or are requested to do so by the poll worker, you should review those frequently asked questions for more information.

You can track the status of your ballot by mail on our website by clicking here. Within a short time after we pick up your ballot from the post office the website will show that your ballot has been received by our office. Once we have verified your signature on the ballot the site will be updated again to show that it has been accepted. If there is a problem with your ballot that prevents us from accepting it without speaking with you, we will post a notice on that ballot status link asking you to call our office. If this occurs we will also attempt to contact you by phone or by mail.

You can also contact the Pima County Recorder's Office at 724-4330 to determine if we have received your ballot by mail. As a general rule, any voter who submits a ballot by mail that cannot be processed is contacted by phone, by mail or both. You should allow approximately 7 business days from the date you mailed your ballot before contacting the Recorder’s Office.

You should attempt to verify the status of your ballot with the Recorder’s Office first by clicking here. We receive ballots from the post office in the morning hours on Election Day and generally by noon the ballot by mail status on the website will show the ballots that have been returned to our office.

Please note, a ballot by mail is an official ballot. Once you have voted the ballot by mail, you have voted in this election. Attempting to vote a second time is a felony offense that could lead to criminal prosecution.

The Recorder’s Office recommends that all ballots by mail be mailed no later than the Thursday prior to election day. Every ballot that is mailed in Pima County on that Thursday has historically been received in time to be counted. If you do not make that mailing deadline, we recommend that you take your ballot to any Pima County Recorder’s Office location or that you take your ballot to any Pima County polling place on election day. If you mail the ballot after the Thursday deadline, you are taking the risk that it will not be received by the deadline of 7:00 p.m. on election day and therefore will not count.

If you mail your ballot after the Thursday recommended deadline and you also decide to go to the polling place to vote a provisional ballot just to make certain your vote counts, you take the risk of criminal investigation and prosecution for attempting to vote twice in one election. If your signed ballot by mail is received by the deadline, your ballot by mail will be the ballot that counts and the provisional ballot will be rejected. You will also be referred to the County Attorney’s Office for investigation.

During the 2004 General Election, a voter initiative appeared on the ballot that included a mandate that everyone voting at the polls must show valid identification. The voters approved that measure during the election so the requirement to show identification is now the law. The identification rules were challenged in court and the court found the rules to be valid.

Click here for information about Voter Identification Requirements.

The process that you must follow will depend on whether you do not have any form of identification or whether you have insufficient identification. You will still be permitted to vote by provisional ballot under either circumstance. Provisional voting is explained in detail on this website in the Frequently Asked Questions regarding provisional voting and you are encouraged to review that information.

Under Arizona law, that cannot happen. The provisional ballots are not removed from the polling place until after the polls have closed. They must be included in the inventory of all ballots from the polling place and are transported to the Elections Department once the inventory is completed. The Elections Department delivers them to the Recorder’s Office the next day.

Some people believe that if their ballot is not tabulated on election day, it does not really count. No election ever ends on election day. The results that are released on election night are unofficial results. The results do not become official until all ballots by mail that were received by 7:00 p.m. on election day are processed to be counted and all provisional ballots that are determined to be properly completed are processed to be counted. This will not occur until several days after election day. This process occurs after every election. The ballots are still processed even if they could not possibly change the outcome of the unofficial results. More likely than not, one or more races or issues will remain undecided by the unofficial results but will be resolved by the final tally once all early and provisional ballots are processed.

Under Arizona law there are several factors that keep an election from being over on Election Day. Voters are permitted to drop off ballots by mail at any Pima County polling site until 7:00 p.m. on Election Day. In major elections in Pima County as many as 30,000 voters have dropped off their ballots at polling places. These ballots cannot be processed until they are delivered to the Recorder’s Office the following day.

In addition both state and federal law allow voters to cast a provisional ballot at the polling places. The Recorder’s Office receives the provisional ballots the day after Election Day and is required to research each voter’s record in order to determine the validity of the ballot. Some of the provisional ballots can take as long as 15 to 20 minutes each to resolve. During the 2012 Presidential Election more than 26,900 provisional ballots were issued to voters in Pima County. In order to make certain we are reaching the correct conclusion as to the validity of the provisional ballot, each ballot is examined by two different staff members who must agree on the result. If they do not, a third person must examine the ballot. That processing takes time to complete. State law allows five working days for most elections and ten calendar days in the November elections in even numbered years for the Recorder’s Office to complete our processing of provisional ballots. The volume of provisional ballots in major elections requires the entire 10 day time period to resolve the issues. During the provisional ballot validation process, the employees at the Recorder’s Office are working extra hours to complete the process in as timely of a manner as is possible.

It should also be noted that the Recorder’s Office processes the dropped off ballots by mail and the provisional ballots even if none of the races on the ballot are still at issue after Election Day. Election results issued during the evening of Election Day are always unofficial results. The results do not become official until all ballots by mail that were returned by the deadline and all provisional ballots have been processed.

A military voter is defined under both state and federal law as a person who is on active duty status in any branch of the United States armed forces and including any of their dependents.

An overseas voter is defined by state and federal law as any United States citizen who is currently residing outside the territorial limits of the United States or any of its territories whether it be temporarily or permanently.

Yes. Military personnel, their dependents and people residing outside the United States are not able to vote in person since they are generally not able to travel to their polling places on election day. In order to make the voting process easier for these citizens, Congress enacted the Uniformed and Overseas Citizen Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA). The Arizona Legislature has also separately adopted many provisions of that act into state law and has made other provisions to make the voting process more convenient for the military and overseas citizen. These rules make it easier for military and overseas voters to register and to vote from remote locations.

There is a different voter registration form, different voter registration deadlines, different ballot transmission procedures and different deadlines for requesting a ballot. Instead of using the Arizona voter registration form, the military/overseas voter should complete the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) form. This form is available from the elections officer at any United States military installation worldwide and is also available at any United States embassy or consulate office worldwide. The form is also available online at the Federal Voting Assistance Project website, www.fvap.gov. The Pima County Recorder's Office also has a supply of these forms available.

The FPCA form is used not only as a voter registration form, but also as a request to receive ballots by mail. The form is valid for one federal election cycle from the date it is completed and sent to the Recorder’s Office. A federal election cycle is defined as a regular election resulting in the election of members of Congress. These elections occur every two years in August and November of the even numbered year.

You also pick how you want the ballot sent to you. You may select regular mail, email or transmission by fax. Once you complete the form and send it to the appropriate registration office, you do not have to request a ballot to be sent to you. It will be sent automatically for each election involving your voting residence address.

Once you have obtained the form, you must complete the form and send it to our office if you are a Pima County voter. The FPCA form is used in all 50 states and some of the information lines do not apply to all of the states. In Arizona you only need to provide the last four digits of your social security number and you do not need to answer the question regarding your gender (see box 1 of the FPCA form).

In Arizona you are not required to select a political party affiliation (box 5) in order to register. However, see the detailed party affiliation answer below.

The form asks you to rank your preferred method of ballot transmission. The Pima County Recorder’s office will send your ballot based on your number 1 ranked choice. If you select electronic transmission (either by email or by fax), no ballot will be mailed to you by regular mail.

In order to submit the FPCA form to the Pima County Recorder’s Office, your residence address (box 2) must be in Pima County, Arizona. See the residence address information below.

If you are registering to vote for the first time in Pima County, you must provide evidence of your United States citizenship at the time you submit the FPCA form. If you do not provide proof of citizenship, you will be registered as a Federal Only voter and will only be eligible to vote for candidates for federal office (U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate and U.S. President). You will not be eligible to vote in any state or local matter. If you submit the national form without providing proof of citizenship, we will attempt to obtain a driver’s license or ID number from the Arizona State Motor Vehicle (MVD) system. If a number is obtained, we will apply it to your record and confirm with MVD that you are a citizen. Once confirmation of citizenship is received, you will immediately have your status changed to a full ballot voter. If the MVD match shows you are not a citizen, you will immediately be cancelled.

If there is no match in the MVD system, you will remain a Federal Only voter. We will send a letter to you advising you of your status and giving you an opportunity to provide proof of citizenship. You will have until the Thursday prior to Election Day at 5:00 p.m. to provide proof of citizenship and be eligible to vote a full Arizona ballot.

See the detailed answer below for acceptable evidence of proof of citizenship.

Once you have completed the FPCA form, you can send the form to the Pima County Recorder’s office by mail, fax or by email.

The mailing address is Pima County Recorder’s Office, PO Box 3145, Tucson AZ 85702-3145. The fax number is (520) 623-1785. The email address is militaryoverseas@recorder.pima.gov.

The UOCAVA mandates that for voting purposes, military personnel’s residence location is defined as their residence that they regularly occupied prior to going to active duty. The military personnel’s residence address does not change at any time during their military career until they leave active duty. Even if you have decided never to return to your prior address, that remains your residence address for voting purposes as long as you are on active duty status.

The rules for a military dependent are very similar to the rules for active duty military personnel. The residence address is deemed to be the address you occupied prior to the military family member moving to active duty status. This is true even if you never resided at that address. So if you are a child of a career soldier and were born after they went to active duty status, your residence address would be the same as the military member's voting residence address.

Unlike the active duty military personnel, a dependent has the right to change their residence address during the soldier’s active duty status. If you are living in a location outside Pima County and decide that you wish to be a resident there, you may change your residence location and register to vote that location. You would need to follow the residence rules of that jurisdiction in order to qualify there.

Under UOCAVA, your residence address is deemed to be the last residence address you occupied on a regular basis before you left the United States. That will remain your residence address for voting purposes until you return to the United States to live. Even if you decide that you will not be returning to the United States, that remains your residence address.

If you have an Arizona driver’s license or identification card issued by the Arizona Motor Vehicle Division and these were issued after October 1, 1996, the number from the license or identification card can be used to establish citizenship. You may also use a copy of your birth certificate, the pages from your United States passport that contain your photograph, identification information and signature. If you are Native American, you can use your Bureau of Indian Affairs card number, Tribal treaty card number or Tribal enrollment number. If you are a Naturalized citizen, you can provide a copy of your naturalization certificate or the alien registration number from that certificate.

A driver’s license from any state other than Arizona, a voter registration card or a military identification card cannot be used to establish citizenship.

Under federal law, the deadline to start sending ballots to military and overseas voters is 45 days prior to Election Day and that day always falls on a Saturday. In Pima County we begin mailing ballots or transmitting ballots electronically on the 46th day prior to Election Day and that date always falls on a Friday. Any military/overseas voter who has submitted a complete FPCA form by the 47th day prior to Election Day will have their ballot sent on the 46th day. Military and Overseas voters who submit their request after that date will have their ballot mailed or transmitted the next business day after receipt of the request by the Pima County Recorder’s Office or earlier if possible.

Yes. Arizona law allows a military/overseas voter to both receive and return their ballot by all three methods of transmission. The choice for how you wish to receive your ballot is up to you. You can also choose a different method to return your ballot from the one used to receive your ballot. In other words, you chose to receive your ballot by regular mail, but you may still chose to return your voted ballot by mail, fax or by email.

Yes. The choice in how you return your voted ballot is entirely up to you and is not determined by the choice you made on your FPCA form on how you wanted to receive your ballot. If you received your ballot by mail, you may return the voted ballot by mail, email or fax. Likewise, if you received your ballot by fax, you may return it by regular mail, fax or email. The same is true for ballots received by email.

You should make your decision based on what transmission resources you have available to you and how close you are to Election Day. Under Arizona law, all ballots must be received by the Recorder’s Office no later than 7:00 p.m. Arizona time on Election Day in order to be counted. If you do not have sufficient time to mail the ballot to the Recorder’s Office by regular mail in order for it to arrive in Tucson by the deadline, you should consider the electronic transmission choices for returning your ballot.

If you have already mailed your ballot back but do not believe it will arrive in time to be valid, we recommend that you send your ballot electronically by either fax or email. Our system is set up so that only one ballot from each voter will be counted. So if you decide to send the ballot back by multiple transmission methods to be certain we receive it, the first one we receive will be the one counted. Due to the unreliable nature of some foreign postal systems, we do not consider this an attempt to vote twice.

You can track the status of your ballot online Clicking Here and entering your information. As soon as possible after we receive your ballot we will make available the return date on our website link. You will also be able to track the ballot through our processes including validation of your signature and handing it over for tabulation.

You will also be able to find out from our office if we received your ballot and it has been validated. You can obtain this information through our website as well as by calling our office on the toll free number 1-800-775-7462 extension 44330.

Yes. Federal law requires military and overseas voters to submit a new FPCA form every regularly scheduled federal election cycle in order to keep your military/overseas status.

No. Under Arizona law, a voter who has decided not to be a member of one of the major political parties is still eligible to vote in most primary elections. Arizona uses a modified version of the open primary system. If you have designated one of the major political party affiliations on the FPCA form, you may only vote in that political party’s primary election. If you do not designate one of the major political party affiliations, you may still vote in ONE of the major party’s primary election. What that means is that you must specify which party ballot you wish to receive and vote in that particular primary election BEFORE a ballot will be sent to you. Once you have made that choice, you cannot change your mind for that primary election cycle. So if you are a voter who designated no party affiliation, you may vote in either the Democratic, Republican or Green Party primary, but not in two or all three. You must make that designation before a ballot will be sent, we cannot send all three. If you do not make a designation, no primary election ballot will be sent to you.

The exceptions to the open primary rule are for the Presidential Preference election that happens in March of each presidential election year. That election is a "closed” election, so that by law, only voters who are actually registered as members of the political party may vote.

The Pima County Recorder’s Office has two fax machines located in a secured area in our office. The fax machines are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The machines are checked at the beginning of each shift and at the end of each shift. In addition, during election cycles the machines are checked regularly during the day. Any ballot that is transmitted through the fax machine is quickly examined to determine that the entire ballot has been transmitted and then sealed in an envelope. The sealed ballot is then secured with all other ballots received by our office.

The Recorder’s Office email account for military/overseas ballots is ballots@recorder.pima.gov. The mail box is protected by two firewalls and is a limited access account. Only a couple of staff members have access to that account. When an emailed ballot is received, the ballot is quickly reviewed to make certain the transmission is complete. It is then printed out and immediately sealed in an envelope and placed with all other ballots by mail in a secured location. The electronic version of the ballot is then deleted from our system.

The staff who examine the ballots on both the fax machines and the email process have been trained to review the ballots without looking at the boxes marked by the voter. This way we can protect the privacy of your ballot at the same time we make certain that the transmission is complete.

You can track the status of your ballot by clicking here.. Enter the requested information and you will be able to see the status of your ballot by mail including when it was received, when your signature was verified and when it was sent for tabulation.

It is the policy of the Recorder’s Office to send an email acknowledging the receipt of all emailed ballots after they have been reviewed and processed. If there was a problem in the transmission so that we received only a portion of the ballot, you will be notified of that situation by email.

Since most fax machines have an internal log to indicate a successful transmission of a fax, the Recorder’s Office does not routinely send acknowledgments of receipt of faxed ballots. However, if there was a problem with the transmission, we will notify the voter by email, phone or by return fax, whichever is available.

Any overseas or military voter can also contact the Recorder’s Office by phone, fax or email to obtain confirmation of receipt of the ballot. You can also check the status of your ballot online through our website. Please allow at least two business days for processing time from the date of electronic transmission before contacting our office.

No. You can vote any portion of the ballot that you wish. If you decide not to vote on some portions, just leave those blank. That will not affect the validity of your ballot.

Under UOCAVA and Arizona law, if you are a resident of Pima County, you are entitled to vote in any election involving your residence address. We are therefore required to send you a ballot covering all races and issues. It is your decision to make whether or not you want to vote on all candidates/issues on your ballot.

No. Your voting status does not change if you decide to vote or not. Your registration status could change if you have changed your overseas/military mailing address or the electronic transmission choice without updating your voter registration. If ballots are not deliverable to you based on the information you provided on the FPCA form or if mailed ballots are returned undeliverable, the automatic transmission of ballots will stop and you will be moved to inactive status. If you stay on inactive status through two federal election cycles without updating your registration or voting, your registration will be cancelled.

A Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot is a special ballot mandated by UOCAVA for voters that need more than the normal time for receipt of mailed ballots. If you are in an area of the world with unreliable or inconsistent postal delivery, you may request a Federal Write-In Absentee ballot from our office. These ballots are also available at any United States embassy or consulate office.

The ballot is a paper ballot that lists no candidate or office. You simply write in the name of the candidates for House of Representatives, United States Senate or President or the political party affiliation of the candidate you wish to vote for. Then seal that ballot in the appropriate write in ballot envelope and send it to our office. These ballots are often available earlier than 45 days prior to election day. In Arizona the write-in ballot may also be transmitted electronically by either fax or email.

The write-in ballot limits you to voting only for the federal candidates. Therefore it is the policy of the Pima County Recorder's Office to send a regular ballot to all voters who have also requested the Federal Write-In Absentee ballot in order to give you the opportunity to vote on state issues if you wish. In the case of a Write-In ballot, the ballot will be held until 7:00 p.m. on election day to provide sufficient time for return of the regular ballot.

No. There is no notary requirement in Arizona.

It depends on your status. If you are active duty military personnel or a dependent and you are PHYSICALLY OUTSIDE THE STATE OF ARIZONA, you may register to vote using the FPCA form. Your form must be received by the Recorder’s Office no later than 7:00 p.m. on Election day, Arizona time.

If you are active duty military personnel or a dependent and you ARE RESIDING IN THE STATE OF ARIZONA, your registration must be completed and transmitted to the Recorder’s Office no later than midnight on the 29th day prior to election day.

An overseas citizen may register to vote up to 7:00 p.m. on election day, Arizona time.

If you moved to Pima County within the 90 days prior to election day, you may register to vote up to 5:00 p.m. on the Friday before election day. You should register to vote in person at the Pima County Recorder’s Office and bring evidence of your return date with you. If you moved back into the United States and Pima County more than 90 days prior to Election Day, your registration deadline is midnight on the 29th day prior to Election Day.

If you were released from active duty within the 90 days preceding an election, you may register to vote until 5:00 p.m. on the Friday prior to election day. You will need to bring in proof of your release from active duty and register in person at the Pima County Recorder’s Office locations. If you were released from active duty more than 90 days before Election Day, the deadline to register to vote is midnight on the 29th day prior to Election Day.

It depends. Under Arizona law you are eligible to vote in Pima County if your parent is currently registered to vote in Pima County. If your parent is not registered to vote in this county, then you are not eligible to vote here.

If you are able to register here, you will only be permitted to vote by Federal Write-In Absentee Ballot for federal offices. Since you have never resided here, you are not eligible to vote in local matters.

No. If you contact the Recorder’s Office by mail, fax or email and indicate that you are a United States citizen and a resident of Pima County and want to vote, we will send you an FPCA form and the ballot by mail for your Pima County residence address. You will then have until 7:00 p.m. (Arizona time) on election day to return both the FPCA form and the ballot by mail. The ballot will not be counted without the receipt and validation of your FPCA form, including providing proof of United States citizenship.

A military or overseas voter may request a ballot up until 7:00 p.m. on election day. At the end of the election cycle, it is recommended that you use either fax or email for the receipt of your ballot. The voted ballot must be back in possession of the Recorder’s Office by 7:00 p.m. on election day (Arizona time) in order to be counted. We recommend that you do not wait until the last minute to request a ballot or register to vote if at all possible. The Recorder’s Office receives large numbers of requests just prior to Election Day and we process them in the order received. If you wait to the last minutes or hours to request your ballot, we will try to get to your request in time, but we cannot guarantee that we will be able to get to all requests in time.

It depends on when it was received. Under Arizona law, the post mark is not relevant to determining if a ballot is timely. The ballot must be physically within the possession of the Recorder’s Office by 7:00 p.m. Arizona time on election day in order to be counted.

Yes. Arizona law allows the completed Federal Write-In Absentee ballot material to be used as a voter registration form. However, you must include proof of United States citizenship with that form for it to be valid.

The Federal Voting Assistance Program is tasked with providing information to all United States citizens who are military or overseas voters. That federal agency has developed a website that provides information for voters who are residents of all 50 states. You can review the Arizona rules in detail as well as download an FPCA form from that site. The site can be found at www.fvap.gov.

Additional information is also available from the elections officer at any United States military installation worldwide or at any United States embassy or consulate office.

AEVL allows a voter to make a single request to receive early ballots by mail for all future elections. Before this list existed, voters who chose to vote by mail were required to make a separate request to receive an early ballot for each election.

On May 11, 2021, Governor Ducey signed into law Senate Bill 1485 which changed the requirements for voters to remain on the PEVL. The Secretary of State has since renamed the list to Active Early Voting List.

You will be sent a ballot by mail automatically before each election that you are eligible to vote in. Your ballot will go in the mail with the very first batch of ballots being mailed out in the election, usually 27 days prior to Election Day.

Any voter who wants to vote regularly by mail rather than going to the polling place should consider having their name added to AEVL. Your regular mailing address must be in Pima County. If you frequently travel to other states for extended periods of time, you probably should not enroll on AEVL.

Under Arizona law, you must make a written request to add your name to the listing. You cannot be added to the list by a telephone or email request.

You must include your full name, residence address, mailing address (if different from the residence address), date of birth, and signature. You must also clearly state that you are requesting to be included on the Active Early Voting List. Your AEVL mailing address must be in Pima County. For your convenience you can download or print out a form from our website by clicking on this link: AEVL_Form.pdf.

You can sign up to be on the list anytime. Under Arizona state law, a ballot for an election will only be mailed if you sign up on or before the 10th day before the election.

No. Under Arizona state law the regular ballot mailing address for a voter on AEVL must be within Pima County.

The only exception to this rule is for voters who are on active duty in the United States military, the dependent of active duty military personnel and any United States citizen residing outside the United States. In order to be allowed to join AEVL with a foreign address, you must have the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) registration form on file or submitted simultaneously with your AEVL application.

Yes. You will be required to request that a ballot be sent to you before each election.

You will remain on AEVL as long as you keep your voter registration record current. Under the AEVL rules, you do not have to submit a new request to be on AEVL when you move or change your name. Just submit a new voter registration form to change your voter registration record and you will remain on the list.

If you forget to update your registration and a ballot or other mail is sent to you by the Recorder’s Office and is returned by the United States Postal Service marked "Undeliverable," your name will be removed from the AEVL list.

If you sign up to be added to AEVL more than 4 months before the next election, you will receive an Election Notice card from the Recorder’s Office. Arizona state law requires that the Recorder’s Office mail these notices twice each year. The mailings will occur in mid-November (covering the March and May elections) and in early May (covering the August and November elections). You will only be sent the Election Notice card if you are eligible to vote in one or more of the next two scheduled election dates.

If you sign up after the mailing has occurred, you can contact the Pima County Recorder's Office at 724-4330 to confirm that your form has been received and processed. Please wait at least 7 days from the date you sent the form in to allow processing time.

First, review the card. If the information is correct and you want to receive a ballot by mail for the election(s) specified in the notice, you do not have to do anything. If you do not return the card, a ballot will automatically be mailed to your address.

If the address is not correct, you can correct the address on the Notice, sign the form and return it to the Recorder’s Office. We will update your address from that Notice.

If your name has changed, you cannot make a name change on the Election Notice Card. Under Arizona state law you can only change your name by submitting a new voter registration form.

If you do not want to receive a ballot by mail for one or both of the elections specified in the Election Notice Card, check the box next to the particular elections (or both if you do not want to receive either ballot by mail), write your date of birth and signature on the form and mail it to the Recorder’s Office. We will remove your name from the listing for mailed ballots for the specified election(s), but your name will remain on the listing for future elections.

If you decide that you do not want to be on AEVL any longer, you can check the box next to that choice on the Election Notice Card, write your date of birth and signature on the form where indicated and mail the card to the Recorder’s Office and we will remove your name from the listing entirely.

Please note that to remove your name from the AEVL listing, or to cancel a ballot for one or more of the specified elections, the Recorder’s Office must receive that request no later than 45 days prior to the election date or your ballots will be mailed.

No. Under Arizona state law, most of the partisan primary elections are "open" primary elections. That means voters who are not registered as members of the political party holding the election may still vote in that political party’s primary election as long as they are not members of one of the other political parties eligible to hold an election. However, in order to receive a ballot for the political party primary, you must specify which one of the political party ballots you want to receive (each political party has a separate ballot in the Primary Election). Until you designate that ballot, you will not be sent a ballot by mail. You may choose only one of the political party ballots to vote in the Primary. Once you have made that designation, you may not choose a different political party ballot for the same Primary Election.

Also note that the Presidential Preference Election is a closed election for every political party participating in the PPE.

Should you decide that you do not want to receive a mailed ballot for the next election, you should notify the Recorder’s Office at least 45 days prior to the election date. You may make this notification by phone or by returning the Election Notice card and checking the box to indicate you do not want a ballot for the specific election.

You can request that we mail your ballots to a temporary address anywhere in the world, whether you are on the AEVL or not. This request must be made anytime up to 10 days prior to election day and will be effective only for one election period. You can make that request in writing, through the internet or by calling the Recorder’s Office. If you do not make this request earlier than 45 days prior to the election, your ballot will be mailed to the address on file. We recommend that you notify us of the temporary address change as soon as possible.

Generally, a mailed ballot should arrive within a week of the mailing date if sent to an address inside the United States. If your ballot does not arrive in that time period or if the ballot arrived and you made a mistake when voting your ballot, call the Recorder’s Office at 520-724-4330 to request a replacement ballot. Please wait at least 7 to 10 days from the mailing date before requesting a second ballot for missing ballots.

If you join AEVL, your ballot will be mailed with the first batch of ballots sent out in the election cycle, usually 27 days prior to the election date. If you have not joined AEVL by that mailing date, your ballot will be mailed within two days after you join the listing.

If you join AEVL, your ballot will be mailed with the first batch of ballots sent out in the election cycle, usually 27 days prior to the election date. If you have not joined AEVL by that mailing date, your ballot will be mailed within two days after you join the listing.
You may return your ballot as soon as you have voted it. To be counted, your ballot must be received by the Recorder’s Office by 7:00 p.m. on Election Day. We recommend that if you are mailing your ballot in Pima County you should mail your ballot no later than the Thursday before Election Day (earlier for ballots mailed from outside Pima County) to ensure that we receive it on time.

Yes. If you have not returned your ballot by mail, you can choose to vote at a polling place. However, you will be required to vote a Provisional Ballot and you will be required to follow the Arizona identification rules.

If you have already returned your ballot by mail, you cannot vote at a polling place again, even if you changed your mind about the candidate you want to vote for. That would be voting twice and would be a criminal offense.

Your ballot will count as long as it is physically in the possession of the Recorder’s Office by 7:00 p.m. on Election Day. Remember, the ballot must be in the sealed ballot by mail affidavit and the affidavit must be signed by you. You can either bring your ballot to the Recorder’s Office locations or drop your ballot off at ANY Pima County polling place on Election Day as long as you do so before 7:00 p.m. You are NOT required to take the ballot to your own polling place.

You can remove your name from the list by sending a written request to be removed. Your request must include your name, address, date of birth and your signature. Please note that if you choose to remove yourself from the list you should do so as far in advance of the election as possible. Ballots will be sent automatically for anyone on AEVL 45 days prior to Election Day.

For your convenience, the Pima County Recorder’s office has a form available on this website for you to print, fill out and mail to our office to remove you from AEVL. That form is located here.

The election notice mailed 90 days prior to the fall election cycles also contains a section to complete to remove yourself from AEVL and forms are also available in polling sites on Election Day.

Arizona law requires that we test every registered voter’s address at least once every two years. Many times we test addresses by a computer check of the United States Postal Service National Change of Address database. At least once every four years we test addresses by sending a new voter registration identification card. If you received a card but did not make a change to your registration record, then you are part of the current address test. If you received the new card, you passed the test.

Under Arizona law, any voter related mail sent by the Recorder’s Office must contain the postal endorsement "Return Service Requested.” When mail has this endorsement, the post office will return the mail to our office if you have moved. The mail will not be forwarded to you. Instead, if you have left a forwarding address with the post office, the postal service will provide that information to us with the returned mail. We will then send you a letter at the new address asking that you update your voter registration record. If you do not update your record within 35 days of receiving that letter, your voter registration record will be moved to "inactive” status.

Federal law requires that we make two attempts to contact you before your voter registration record may be moved to inactive status. The Voter Identification card is frequently the first attempt and the follow up letter is the second attempt.

Once you are on inactive status, no further election related mail will be sent to you unless you update your registration or otherwise contact our office. You will still be eligible to vote while you are on inactive status, but you will need to update your registration first or notify us that you still reside at the same address. If you do not update your address or vote in the next two federal elections, your voter registration will be cancelled. The cancellation generally occurs in December of an even numbered year, approximately a month after the federal election.

It is actually a cost savings of tax dollars to keep the registration roll as current as possible. We live in a very mobile society. People are moving on a daily basis, some across town and others out of Pima County or out of state. Each jurisdiction conducting an election is required to send sample ballots to each household, print enough ballots so that every registered voter in the jurisdiction has a ballot plus a supply of replacement ballots and plans polling places and the number of poll workers based on the number of registered voters in the jurisdiction. Every voter who moves within the county and does not update their voter registration record results in a Provisional Ballot being issued on election day. The provisional ballots must then be processed before the election results can become final. These costs far outweigh the costs of sending the address test correspondence. By giving voters a reminder to update their registration to the new address and moving voters who have left Pima County to the inactive roll, we are able to save these additional printing, mailing and personnel costs.

As soon as you can after you move, update your voter registration record by submitting a new voter registration form. If you have an Arizona driver’s license, you can update your address with the Motor Vehicle Division and update your voter registration online by visiting the MVD website, servicearizona.com. Just click on the icon for registering to vote and that will allow you to update your MVD address at the same time.

You can also submit a regular voter registration form. In Pima County, forms are available at all libraries, post offices, MVD offices, all city and town halls, all political party headquarters, all public assistance offices and in most government buildings. You can also print out a registration form.

You will receive a new voter identification card showing your new address and any other changes you make within 30 days after we receive the new voter registration form.

Arizona voters adopted an initiative measure in 2004 to mandate that all new voters in a county must provide proof of United States citizenship at the time of registering to vote. Under new guidelines, if you do not provide proof of citizenship with the form, you are registered as a Federal Only voter and are only eligible to vote for candidates for federal office (U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate and U.S. President). Any of the following items may be submitted to prove your citizenship:

1. Your Arizona driver’s license number or Arizona MVD issued identification card number. These numbers are only valid if the license or identification card were issued after October 1, 1996. Do not send your license or a photocopy of your license.
2. A photocopy of your birth certificate. If your name has changed since you were born, be certain to complete all sections of the voter registration form. Do not send an original birth certificate or a certified copy, we cannot return the document to you.
3. A photocopy of your United States passport showing your name and vital information.
4. The alien registration number from your Certificate of Naturalization. You may also send a photocopy of your certificate. Do not send the original certificate.
5. If you are Native American, you can provide the number from your Bureau of Indian Affairs card, tribal treaty card, or your tribal enrollment number.

Voter registration cards from any jurisdiction and a driver’s license issued by any other state is not acceptable.

You may also personally come to the Recorder’s Office with your completed voter registration form and bring the original of any of the documents listed with you. We will not keep the original if you bring it in personally.

You have until 5 p.m. on the Thursday before an election to provide documentary proof of citizenship, provided that your voter registration form was submitted by the voter registration cut off date, in order to vote a full ballot in that election.

The jury summons that was sent to you contained a questionnaire to determine if you are eligible to serve as a juror. One of the questions asked you whether or not you are a citizen of the United States. The second question asked if you were a convicted felon who did not have their civil rights restored. If you answered the question that you were NOT a citizen of the United States or that you are a convicted felon but have not had your rights restored, the Jury Commissioner is required to notify the Recorder’s Office of your answers. Based on your answers, you are not eligible to serve on a jury and you are not eligible to be a registered voter. The Recorder’s Office is required to immediately cancel your voter registration.

If the answers you gave on the questionnaire were incorrect, you must contact the Jury Commissioner’s Office at 724-4222 to discuss this matter. The Jury Commissioner’s Office will then notify the Recorder’s Office if there is an error and your voter registration will be reinstated. Your voter registration will not be reinstated until the Jury Commissioner notifies the Recorder’s Office of the error.

If your answers to the questionnaire were correct, once you become a United States citizen or once your civil rights have been restored after a felony conviction, you will be eligible to register to vote and may do so at that time.

Under Arizona law, you must identify your actual residence address on your voter registration form. Unless you physically reside at your business address, you cannot use the address as the "residence” address on your voter registration. The voter registration form has a separate location for including a mailing address and you can use your business address as your mailing address, but you must still provide your actual residence address on the form.

If you actually reside at your business address, please call the Recorder’s Office at 724-4330 to discuss this matter as soon as possible.

If you do not reside at the business location, please complete a new voter registration form as soon as possible. A form should have been included with the letter. If we do not receive the new registration form within 15 days of the date of the letter, your voter registration will be cancelled.

Please write "Not at this Address” on the outside and place it in any United States Postal Service mailbox. The post office will then return it to our office. Under Federal law we can only move someone off the voter registration roll if we receive notice from the post office that the mail is not deliverable. Please do not just throw the mail away. If you simply throw the letter away, we must leave the person on the registration roll and you will continue to receive mail addressed to that individual.

Federal law requires that we make two attempts to locate a voter by mail before we move them to inactive status. Therefore you may receive a second letter from our office. We ask that you again write "Not At this Address” on the envelope and return that letter as well. Shortly after the second letter, we will move the voter to inactive status and no further mail will be sent.

The post card was sent to you because either mail we sent to you was returned with no forwarding address or the Postal Service National Change of Address database shows that you moved without providing a forwarding address. If you have not moved, please call our office at 724-4330 in order to make certain we do not incorrectly move your voter registration record to inactive status. If we do not receive a response from you within 35 days, your voter registration record will be moved to inactive status.

You received this letter because the Postal Service provided us with the out of state forwarding address for your mail. If you have moved out of state, please complete the form (include your name, date of birth and signature) and return it to us in the enclosed envelope and we will cancel your voter registration in Pima County. Be certain to register to vote in your new location as soon as you can since many jurisdictions have longer residency requirements and different voter registration deadlines than the State of Arizona.

You can also have your registration cancelled by registering to vote in your new jurisdiction and including your Pima County address on the voter registration form where it asks if you are currently registered to vote at another address. That jurisdiction will then routinely send our office notice of the change. This process will take much longer to have your record in Pima County cancelled then returning the request form directly to our office.

If you are only temporarily out of state, please call our office at (520) 724-4330 as soon as you can. Once you notify us that you are only gone temporarily, you will not need to update your voter registration at this time and we will not move your record to inactive status. If we do not hear from you within 35 days from the date of the letter, your record will be placed on inactive status.

Under Arizona law, a voter must provide a minimum amount of information on certain key portions of the voter registration form before the form is considered to be complete. At the minimum, you must provide your name, residence address, date of birth, signature and check the boxes near the signature line to confirm that you will be at least 18 years of age by the next general election and are a citizen of the United States. If you are registering for the first time in Pima County, you must also provide proof of United States citizenship with your voter registration form. The proof of citizenship requirements are addressed in another question below.

If you are missing one of the required items of information, we are prohibited from processing your form. A voter registration form was included with the letter and you should fully complete the form as soon as possible. If you use the form we sent to you, your voter registration record will be back dated to the date on the original form once you have submitted a complete form. You will not be considered a registered voter and added to the registration roll until the missing information is provided.

If you have an Arizona driver’s license, you can also register to vote online at the Motor Vehicle Division website, servicearizona.com.

Arizona voters adopted an initiative measure in 2004 to mandate that all new voters in a county must provide proof of United States citizenship at the time of registering to vote. If you do not provide that proof with the registration form, the initiative measure mandates that your registration form be rejected. Any of the following items may be submitted to prove your citizenship:

1. Your Arizona driver’s license number or Arizona MVD issued identification card number. These numbers are only valid if the license or identification card were issued after October 1, 1996. Do not send your license or a photocopy of your license.
2. A photocopy of your birth certificate. If your name has changed since you were born, be certain to complete all sections of the voter registration form. Do not send an original birth certificate or a certified copy, we cannot return the document to you.
3. A photocopy of your United States passport showing your name and vital information.
4. The alien registration number from your Certificate of Naturalization. You may also send a photocopy of your certificate. Do not send the original certificate.
5. If you are Native American, you can provide the number from your Bureau of Indian Affairs card, tribal treaty card, or your tribal enrollment number.

Voter registration cards from any jurisdiction and a driver’s license issued by any other state is not acceptable.

You may also personally come to the Recorder’s Office with your completed voter registration form and bring the original of any of the documents listed with you. We will not keep the original if you bring it in personally.

Under federal law requirements, Arizona has a statewide voter registration database. Each county in Arizona will enter voter information into the computer system and the information is immediately transmitted to the statewide database. That database searches for matching information from all other records. The letter was prompted by a report from the statewide database that a voter with information matching your information has registered to vote in another county in Arizona. The information that is being matched is your name, date of birth, driver’s license number and a portion of your social security number. If you believe that you received this letter in error, please call the voter registration office at 724-4330 to discuss the problem. We will ask for more information from the state database and from the county that processed the registration form to determine if an error occurred. If an error is found, your Pima County voter registration will be reinstated. Please report this situation as soon as possible since you are not a registered voter in Pima County unless you report this problem.

If you did in fact register to vote in another county, and you have moved to that other county, you do not need to do anything further. The letter was sent to confirm your move and to rule out a computer error.

Under Arizona law, the Clerk of the Superior Court for each county is required to report the identity of any person convicted of a felony offense to the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office.

The information from that report is compared to the statewide voter registration database to see if the information matches a registered voter. If a potential match is found, the county is notified. You were sent the letter because the information in your voter registration record matched the identity of a person who was convicted of a felony offense.

If you have not been convicted of a felony, please call the voter registration office at 724-4330 as soon as possible. The Recorder’s Office will then research the court record and compare that information to your voter registration record. If the information does not match, your voter registration record will be reinstated immediately.

If you have been convicted of a felony offense, under Arizona law, you are no longer eligible to vote and your registration was properly cancelled. You can regain your eligibility after you fully complete the sentence imposed by the judge. You should review the Frequently Asked Questions pertaining to felony convictions on this website for further information. Once your right to vote has been restored, you will need to complete a new voter registration form in order to become a registered voter.

In many election matters, the Recorder’s Office is required to conduct a signature comparison to confirm your identity. The law requires that this comparison be made between a document and your voter registration form. The documents include any type of petition, a vote by mail ballot and a provisional ballot. If the Recorder’s Office is not able to positively conclude that the same person made both signatures, we are required to invalidate the document.

It is very common for a person’s signature to change over time. Some people choose to change their signature. Others change their signature as a result of an injury or an illness. This letter was sent to you because we noticed significant differences between the signature on your most recent voter registration form and another document we were reviewing. We are asking that you provide an up to date signature so that we do not have issues in making the signature comparison in the future. You are not required to send in the new voter registration form, but it would helpful in processing future vote by mail ballots, provisional ballots or petition signatures to have the updated signature on file.

In many election matters, the Recorder’s Office is required to conduct a signature comparison to confirm your identity. The law requires that this comparison be made between a document and your voter registration form. The documents include any type of petition, a ballot by mail and a provisional ballot. If the Recorder’s Office is not able to positively conclude that the same person made both signatures, we are required to invalidate the document.

A number of the signatures from the online registration system are not usable for signature comparison. They arrive in our office as either large blobs of black ink or missing significant portions of the signature. That is the case for the form we received from the Motor Vehicle Division for your online registration. In order to prevent problems with your future voting activity, we request that you provide an original signature to our office. You are not required to send in the new form, but it would be helpful in processing any vote by mail ballot, provisional ballot or petition signature from you.

If you placed a temporary hold on your mail while you were out of town, the postal service is still showing that hold. Even if you had your mail forwarded to another address, the post office will not provide us with that forwarding address since it is only a temporary change. However, they returned the mail we sent to you marking it as undeliverable. If you have returned to the same residence, please contact the voter registration division at 724-4330. We will be able to update our record that you are now receiving mail again at your address. If you do not contact our office within 35 days of the date of the letter, your voter registration will be moved to inactive status. If that occurs and you return to the same address, you can have your record returned to active status by calling the voter registration office.

Yes. As long as the signature appears on the same line as the printed name and matches the voter's signature on file with the Recorder's Office, it is a valid signature.

No. Arizona law requires a full date including month, day and year before any petition signature can be considered valid.

If the husband is a registered voter and the address listed is in the correct district, the signature is valid. The use of ditto marks for any information except the signature is valid under Arizona law.

Yes. The issue is whether the signatures can be identified without the printed names. If the signatures match the voter registration signatures, both will be valid as long as there are not more than 8 other signatures on the same petition page. Under Arizona law, petitions may only contain 10 signatures per page.

No. Under Arizona law, a voter may withdraw their name from any petition by drawing a line through their name on the petition page prior to the filing of the petition. If a petition contains a signature with a line drawn through it at the time it is filed, state law presumes that the voter has withdrawn their signature and it will not be counted toward qualification for the ballot.

Yes. Any registered voter may sign a candidate nomination petition if they are registered in either the candidate’s political party, no party affiliation or as an "independent” voter or as a member of any political party that does not have ballot status in Arizona. The political parties with recognized status at the state level and in Pima County are the Democratic Party, Green Party, Libertarian Party and the Republican Party.

If the voter printed their 'signature' on their voter registration form, and the printing matches the voter registration form, the signature will be valid. If the voter signed their voter registration form in cursive then the signature will be rejected since it does not match the signature on file. Comparisons cannot be done between cursive and printed letters.

Not a chance. State statute requires the lawsuit to list each signature being challenged and the basis for challenging each signature. The failure to comply with that requirement is jurisdictional. In other words, if the grounds for challenging each signature are not specifically listed, the court has no authority to consider the challenge. Unless the petition signature can be determined to be invalid from an examination of the petition on its face without any additional research, the Pima County Recorder’s Office will only review the signature for the grounds listed in the candidate challenge.

Since both seats in the House of Representatives for each legislative district are up for election every two years, a voter may sign the nomination petition for both candidates. A voter may only sign nomination petitions for the same number of votes they cast at the election. So if three House candidates are running, the voter may only sign two nomination petitions. If only one seat is up for election, a voter may only sign one petition. If the voter signs too many petitions, it is the earliest petition signed that counts as valid. If the "extra” signature was signed on the same date that the other petition was signed, both signatures are disqualified under Arizona law.

Unless you update your registration before you make the contribution, the contribution will not be valid. Arizona law specifies that the contributor must actually be registered to vote in the legislative district before they can contribute a valid $5.00 Clean Election contribution to a candidate. You can complete a new voter registration form to change your address and submit it to the county recorder’s office on the same day that you make your contribution.

No. Arizona law requires that the results of the random sample EXCEED 110% of the minimum number of qualifying contributions. If you submit exactly 110% of the minimum you will not exceed that number and a full check of the petitions will be required. It is recommended that you submit at least 20% more qualifying contribution forms than the required minimum.

Yes. Nothing in the Clean Elections statute prohibits a voter from contributing to more than one campaign for the same office.

Yes. Nothing in the statute requires that there be two separate people involved. The paperwork must be filled out completely.

Yes. Nothing in the Clean Elections statutes prohibits a candidate from contributing $5.00 to his or her own campaign.

Yes. Nothing in the Clean Elections statutes restricts contributions to particular political party affiliations. Clean Elections contributions have different rules than candidate nomination petitions.

No. Only the voter may sign and date the qualification form unless the voter has a physical disability that prevents him/her from signing. If anyone else signs on behalf of a voter who is not disabled, the contribution will not count toward qualification and could lead to a criminal investigation for forgery and/or fraud.

No. This is the same as the previous question. Each voter must sign for himself or herself unless the voter has a physical disability that prevents them from signing. If someone else is signing for a voter because of a disability, make note of this on the form so it can be verified. Please note, as part of the validation process, each signature is compared to the signature on the voter's registration form. If the signature does not match, the contribution does not qualify.

Yes. It is highly recommended that you conduct your own verification of the contributions before you submit them to the Secretary of State’s Office. The Pima County Recorder’s office has a number of public research computers available for your use in validating the petitions. The actual voter signatures are not available in the public research area. If you wish to compare the signatures on the forms to the voter’s actual voter registration form signatures, you should call in advance to request access to a computer with signature access. We encourage you to use the computers in the Recorder’s office rather than relying on data in a political party office. Political party data may be weeks or months out of date depending on the time you are conducting your verification.

Yes. If the completed and dated voter registration form is received by the Recorder?s Office within 10 days of the date it was completed, the voter will be registered as of the date on the voter registration form. If the form is not dated, or not received by the Recorder?s Office within that time period, the voter will be registered as of the date the form was received and the contribution will not count towards qualification.