Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Approves 2012 Election Canvass

The perception was (and still is among some) that this election was out of control, beyond the pale of what is acceptable.

And yet, there's not a huge change from the last presidential election in 2008. Nor do I recall any hue and cry over the late vote count back then.

The total canvass, which Osborne joked is, "3,000 pages of reading pleasure," includes the number of provisionals cast in each precinct.

"Every precinct had them," Osborne told me. "They were all over, West Phoenix, Paradise Valley...What you'll see is, it's a mosaic of the entire county. It isn't any one place.

She said that on December 5, county elections will unveil maps they're working on that will show the distribution of the vote throughout the county.

I have a CD copy of the entire canvass, but it's way too large for me to post in its entirety. A cursory review does show that seemingly every precinct had provisionals, but there are variations, and it will take more time to analyze the raw data.

Overall, there were 1,499 conditional provisionals cast, where a voter did not have the proper ID.

Of that number, 414 people came back to the polls and presented their ID on the same day, 61 presented sufficient ID after election day, and 1,024 did not return with their ID.

"That's half what we had in 2008," Osborne said of the 1,024. "Which is good."

There were 59,623 people who had requested early ballots, did not return them, but showed up at the polls to vote. They had to vote provisionally.

Osborne said that's twice as many as in 2008.

County stats also show that 28,446 provisionals were for new residents, and 7,215 people tried to vote who were not registered to vote.

During county elections' presentation to the BOS, Osborne explained how everyone at her office kicked in to get the count done. Even the IT people helped out with non-IT tasks.

"Everyone pulled together to do things they don't normally do," she said.

All of this was done under considerable stress, as county elections became the focal point for the frustration, distrust and disappointment of various activist groups, who engaged in spirited demonstrations outside elections offices.

Sadly, I think a lot of the angst was due to misinformation, misunderstanding and lack of effective communication.

But hey, you live and learn. Hopefully.