US election: The world could wait a fortnight thanks to one Arizona County

Come next Tuesday, the world will be watching Nate Young and his team – literally. 
There are now 21 livestream cameras showing early voter ballot drop-off locations and the inner-workings of the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center.
The 24/7 livestreams that capture election employees’ every move might seem like overkill, but for Young, the Maricopa County chief information officer, they’re essential.
Young is in charge of operations for the security and integrity of the voting process in his county – from registration and returns through to the verifying of signatures and counting the ballots.
And this county is one of the most important battlegrounds in the country.
Maricopa – the third largest county in the country – is on a knife’s edge. Changing demographics, due largely to the expansion of the chip manufacturing sector, have turned the once red (Republican) area, purple. And as the election draws nearer, it’s become increasingly clear Maricopa County could determine who becomes the 47th president of the United States.
Both the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates know just how important Arizona – and particularly Maricopa – are to their chances of winning. With just five days to go until the election both Trump and Kamala Harris headed to Arizona.
Harris spoke at a rally in Phoenix, while Trump was backed by conservative commentator Tucker Carlson in Glendale. In two days’ time, Trump’s running mate, JD Vance will also head to Maricopa County, in a bid to shore up support ahead of this historic election.
With its 2.6 million registered voters, making up more than 60 percent of the state’s entire voting population, Maricopa has become known as a crucial swing county.
It is also the county at the heart of former President Donald Trump’s false allegations of voter tampering in the 2020 election. Trump’s disproven claims – levelled as returns came in for Joe Biden – led to a Senate “audit” of votes cast in Maricopa. While the audit did not uncover any vote tampering, the process did reveal Trump attempted to pressure the US Department of Justice to overturn the election result.
And those charged with upholding the integrity of the election in Maricopa County aren’t ruling out the possibility this could happen again.
Arizona is one of the states that allows early voting – both mail and in-person. A high population of voters, a culture of procrastination or “late early” voters, the complicating factor that this election will include two ballot forms, and the lengthy signature verification process, all mean counting will again take a while.
At this stage, Young is expecting the final count to take 10-13 days, leaving a that void will likely be filled with the same mis-, dis- and malicious information propagated in 2020.
So, Young and his team are throwing everything at efforts to show the public just how secure the process is, in a ‘sunlight is the best disinfectant’ approach.
Young and his team have spent more than a year preparing for these elections, and in that time they’ve done more than 150 tours of the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center – for media, candidates, representatives and the public.
Maricopa Recorder Stephen Richer has fronted a constant stream of press conferences, and the team has put together videos explaining how the voting system works and how ballots are processed.
With the livestream cameras, there is a virtual reality tour of the centre, and a series of FAQs on the website.
Young says his experience following the false claims of vote tampering, election fraud or manipulation has taught him that with physical and cyber security, transparency is essential in dispelling myths and misinformation.
“We also try and get people to realise that the people who are running elections are your neighbours, the people that are around you there. It’s not some … void of deep state.”
The cybersecurity element of Maricopa’s election integrity efforts means it only uses federally certified voting systems, and no wifi or external devices are allowed into the tabulation rooms.
The servers processing voter information and ballots are monitored (including by livestream cameras), and the cables connecting the servers to computers are part of an “airgap network” – meaning they aren’t hidden away in the walls and can be physically traced from start to finish.
While cameras show the outside world what’s happening inside the squat, brown-brick warehouse, the building itself is in full lockdown to the public.
Permanent and temporary fencing now surrounds the centre, with uniformed and non-uniformed officers from the sheriff’s department monitoring the location, with all ballot return centres and early voting points across the county.
Staff have training in de-escalation and spotting potential threats, in an effort to prevent an altercation before it happens.
And Maricopa County is working with other large counties around the country, as well as the FBI and the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center, to get access to the best information available.
On election day, operations will turn up a notch, with no fewer than 30 sheriff’s cruisers outside the centre, where staff will be working around the clock to verify and count ballots. Meanwhile, Young says he also expects to see a return of the “mounted posse” or mounted officers from the 2022 midterms.
In the control room, about 60 officials, law enforcement and threat liaisons, will be watching and taking calls in real-time, immediately responding to any threats or suspicious behaviour.
Another key to successfully administering elections is the staff, and Maricopa County needs a lot.
The county has 814 temporary employees coming onboard for this election, as well as 708 permanent employees seconded to work on the election, and 2851 poll workers on November 5.
But with the job comes a level of anxiety and potential harassment.
A survey from the Brennan Center for Justice, released in May, found 38 percent of local election officials experienced threats, harassment, or abuse for doing their jobs.
County recorder Stephen Richer has faced harassment and death threats against himself and his family, leading to court cases, including a high-profile defamation case against Republican Senate hopeful Kari Lake.
“My family and I have faced endless and vile threats, including calls for our execution, and I’ve lost important personal relationships and seen my reputation severely damaged,” Richer said last year.
“Working as a public servant should not lead to death threats, harassment, or defamation.”
Meanwhile, Young tells stories of an election worker who had someone show up at their house at 3am, attempting to make a citizen’s arrest. Other employees have been doxxed online.
Young’s team recently won a court case, which challenged the office’s decision not to release employees’ personal details under the Freedom of Information Act in an effort to protect their physical safety – something they did until recently. They won.
“Although we can’t necessarily ensure that everyone is going to feel comfortable in every single position that they’re in, especially when they’re working in a presidential election that’s as contentious as this one is, we feel like we’ve done a good job at providing them with enough tools,” he says.
But despite the anxiety, Maricopa County currently has more people asking to help with the election than they have jobs for.
“I haven’t seen a more dedicated people. They don’t have to work here, they could probably find another job or position that’s way less stressful … but they are here for a purpose; they are here to protect democracy, and provider the Maricopa County voters with the most opportunity that they can to cast their ballot and vote for the candidate they support.”
Despite all of these efforts, not everyone is won over.
Maricopa continues to face unfounded allegations over election integrity. And some of those involved following the 2020 controversy have become collateral damage.
Richer backed his systems in the face of Trump’s brazen attempts to overthrow the 2020 election results, telling courts and the Senate his people administered the election with “integrity” to produce “accurate and reliable” results.
(A total of 14 claims of fraud, tampering or manipulation emerged and no instances have been proven; no court cases won.)
But Richer still lost the Republican primary to hold onto his role earlier this year.
Meanwhile, Maricopa County board of supervisors member Bill Gates has decided he will not run again this year, citing harassment and conspiracy theories related to election integrity.
Young told Newsroom the questioning of his staff and his systems can be “frustrating at times”.
“Especially as a technologist; as an IT guy, we hear people say things that are just patently not true about technology or about our IT system.”
The chief information officer refers to conspiracy theories from the 2020 election, including claims ballots had been printed on bamboo paper and an Italian satellite had hacked the systems.
But he also sees this as a challenge to educate people about the election process and the steps taken to protect democratic systems.
Six days out from election day, 2.6 million people in the county are registered to vote. Of those, 1.1m have already returned their mail-in ballot and 104,000 people have early voted in-person.
Mail-in voting has been in place in Arizona for more than 30 years, creating a culture of “voting from the couch”, as well as early voting.
However, Young says people still like to push it to the last minute, and he expects both a high turnout of in-person voters on November 5, as well as lines and lines of cars filled with people who didn’t get around to dropping off their mail-in ballot sooner.
One person unlikely to be voting in this year’s crucial election is Maricopa County resident Stuart Mazzeo – not by design, but through misunderstanding.
Despite the county’s best efforts at mounting an unprecedented public information campaign, it’s impossible to reach everyone.
On October 31 – dressed as a skeleton and black eye make-up in an homage to Alice Cooper – Mazzeo walked into the Maricopa County courthouse in downtown Phoenix.
Mazzeo told Newsroom he’d walked eight miles (13 kilometres) to drop off his voter registration form. But he was turned away. He says he was turned away by an employee who said they didn’t like his attitude. He says he planned to walk a further couple of kilometres to try again.
In Arizona, voters have to be registered 29 days ahead of the election to vote. So, Mazzeo won’t get to vote for the candidate he refers to as “my guy” this election.
Mazzeo has passionate opinions about immigration and the rule of law that’s driven him to register. When asked point blank why he’s voting for “my guy”, he says: “Because I’m sick of being poor”.
Perhaps, Maricopa will follow the likes of Alaska, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C. to allow same-day registration next time around.