LOS ANGELES — Two weeks after the election, the ballots are finally counted in Arizona. The delay — more than half a million were uncounted on Election Day — has left community organizers who registered a record number of Latino voters in Arizona reeling with frustration and suspicion.
A crush of hundreds of thousands of early mail-in ballots received a few days before Election Day is partly to blame for the delay, election officials said. For instance, Maricopa County officials were inundated with 200,000 early mail-in ballots just on Election Day. Statewide, more than 600,000 ballots were left uncounted that day — out of about 2.2 million cast during this year’s election.
Still, Latino advocates and leaders remain suspicious and contend election officials should have been prepared.