Oct. 9 also marks the opening of drop boxes. Trump, Harris, Vance, and Walz all have campaign events slated in the swing state.
Election season is already well underway, with early in-person voting kicking off Oct. 9 in Arizona, a key battleground state.
Also, mail-in ballots will be sent out that day to voters who made a one-time request or who are on the state’s active early voting list. It is also the day drop boxes open across the state.
Arizonans who receive mailed ballots can choose to vote early in person.
“Only the first ballot received and verified by the County Recorder shall be counted,” the state’s election manual states.
The deadline to request a mail-in ballot is Oct. 25.
Normal early in-person voting ends on Nov. 1 at 7 p.m., four days before Election Day, Nov. 5.
But the state has an emergency period from Nov. 1 through 5 p.m. on Nov. 4. It covers those voters “experiencing an emergency between 5 p.m. on the Friday preceding the election and 5 p.m. on the Monday preceding the election.”
The elections manual states that Arizona’s county recorders “shall establish in-person early voting locations throughout the county as practicable to ensure that all voters may reasonably access at least one early voting location.”
Maricopa County, home to more than 60 percent of the state’s residents, maintains a list of voting center and drop box locations.
A dozen of the county’s vote centers open on Oct. 9, while others open on Oct. 25, Nov. 1, Nov. 4, or Election Day. All drop boxes, including two 24-hour drop boxes, open on Oct. 9.
The Epoch Times has reached out to Republicans and Democrats in the county for comment.The major candidates and their running mates are barnstorming the swing state.
Although the race is close, some recent numbers have shown former President Donald Trump, a Republican, leading Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. An AARP-commissioned survey conducted Sept. 24 through Oct. 1 found Trump with a two-point lead in the state.
FiveThirtyEight’s polling average shows Trump with a 1.3 percent advantage as of Oct. 8. The RealClearPolling average for the state sits at a 1.4 percent edge for Trump.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), is slated to hold a rally in Tucson on Oct. 9, the day early voting begins.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate, will appear in the state that same day. Walz will be in Chandler alongside Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), the Democratic Senate candidate for a seat being vacated by Kyrsten Sinema, a Democrat turned independent.
Gallego and his Republican opponent, former news anchor Kari Lake, will face off in a televised debate later that day.
Harris is slated to hold a rally in Chandler on Oct. 10.
President Joe Biden’s wife, First Lady Jill Biden, will be a Harris–Walz surrogate at events in Yuma on Oct. 11.
In addition, Trump will hold an event in Prescott Valley on Oct. 13.