PHOENIX — Results in Arizona will first be announced on Election Day at 8 p.m., and there is a rough estimate of how many ballots from Maricopa County will be released at that time.

County Recorder Stephen Richer said Monday that about 55% of the total votes in Arizona's most populous county will be known on the first ballot. Of these, 75% of all early ballots received will have been released.

Richer said 2.2 million ballots had been processed and sent for tally as of Monday. Maricopa County has a two-sided ballot for the first time since 2006, sending about 1.1 million voters' ballots for tally.

Maricopa County has about 2.6 million registered voters.

“We process ballots 24/7,” Richer said at a news conference.

More help processing ballots for Maricopa County

On Wednesday, the county expects to release the results of about 500,000 additional ballots.

That's partly because the district has taken additional measures this election year to speed up the process, such as having employees take on extra shifts.

More than 150 “committees” – meaning two-person, non-partisan work teams – are available to advance the voting process. That's twice as many panels as Arizona election officials have deployed in the last two elections.

Despite the extra help, election officials have urged people to vote early or make a plan if they want to cast their vote in person on Election Day.

Richer said 180,000 people have voted early in person so far. Nearly 250 vote centers across the county have been open since Monday.

All ballot papers must be processed and the signature verified before being counted.

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