“For all intents and purposes, we are already a vote-by-mail state. But that’s because that’s what the voters have wanted and that’s how they vote.”

were cast in the primary, according to Pima County election results, of which about 82% — or about 173,000 ballots — were early votes.

The county has received more calls about emergency voting — voting that can occur because of health or family emergencies or issues with work on Election Day. But the number of people using emergency and early in-person voting is down, likely because of COVID-19, Roads said.

“We’ve seen fewer walk-in voters,” Roads said. Pima County has more voting sites this year but “the sites are just not very active,” he said.

If the primary races are close, new election procedures could delay the certification of the vote, Roads said.

Voters in all counties now have five business days to resolve problems with their signatures on early ballots, the result of a lawsuit settlement regarding the 2018 election. Previously, rules for curing early ballot signatures that were thrown out for discrepancies varied from county to county.

The final count that includes contested early vote signatures now can’t happen until Aug. 11, he said. While there are a limited number of contested primaries across the state that are likely to be close, the new rule is likely to affect election results in November.

Pinal County Election Director Michele Forney said as of Monday the county had tallied more than 40,000 early votes. In 2018, about 43,000 early votes were cast in the primary, she said, out of about 57,000 total votes.

She said the extra seven days to process ballots has helped, but the counties are at the mercy of voters turning in ballots early so they can be counted quicker. Many people want to hold onto their ballots because they don’t know who to vote for or wait and see what stories come out about the candidates.

“If you know who you are going to vote for, send it in,” she said.