Maricopa County election officials will count votes this year in the same building that protesters nearly stormed in 2020.
But they will soon count presidential votes in a new facility.
County officials intend to move their entire election operation — ballot storage, signature verification, vote counting and more — to a new office at 801 West Jefferson Street. They are pursuing an accelerated construction plan that would have the Department of Elections and some Registrar’s Office employees moved before the start of the 2028 election cycle.
“As our democracy evolves, so must our election infrastructure,” said Supervisor Bill Gates. “Our goal is to build facilities to streamline efficiency in the tabulation process and future-proof our electoral processes by protecting them against emerging threats and challenges.”
The new facility will be built on land on the west end of downtown Phoenix, adjacent to the county’s Forensic Science Center.
It is less than a mile from the county’s current election headquarters, which is in the Warehouse District, south of Phoenix’s urban core. The move would leave that building, known as the Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center, empty.
Renderings of the planned building and other project details are not yet available.
But pre-construction documents show county officials are considering a 200,000-square-foot, multistory building with storage space, offices, loading docks and an underground level. That’s about the same square footage as three and a half football fields.
Preliminary budget documents put the price tag at about $142 million.
Construction is expected to begin later this year. Gates said he expects the final product to be “state-of-the-art.”
‘A beacon of democracy’
The county has seen its number of registered voters more than double in recent decades. The millennium began with around 1.1 million registered voters and now has more than 2.3 million.
Gates said the new building will give election officials more space to speed up ballot processing.
“This facility will be a beacon of democracy, where we will ensure every eligible vote is counted and every voice is heard,” he said.
The new construction also comes amid growing security concerns for county election workers, who have seen a surge in harassment and threats in recent years.
Hundreds of protesters, some armed, gathered in front of MCTEC with flags, posters and microphones in 2020. Enraged by the electoral conspiracies, they gathered at the foot of the stairs leading to the building’s entrance.
The crowd was smaller and met with a larger law enforcement presence in 2022, but county officials still faced security challenges in determining how to allow media access to MCTEC and transport temporary employees to and from the facility.
Security concerns and population pressures have already led other counties to build new election facilities.
Coconino County recently opened its new election center, which has extensive safety protocols. Officials said the building was designed to provide maximum transparency without sacrificing election integrity.
“I hope that everyone who walks through here sees how transparent it is, how safe it is, how well equipped and how open it is,” Coconino County Supervisor Jeronimo Vasquez said during the building’s dedication. “Because at the end of the day we’re trying to show that everyone’s vote counts and that it’s done fairly.”
Meanwhile, Pinal County election officials are preparing to move this year to a brand-new facility in Florence. Officials say the county’s current elections office, located in Coolidge, is too cramped to process an increasing number of votes as its population increases.
Sasha Hupka covers county government and election administration for the Arizona Republic. Contact her at sasha.hupka@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SashaHupka. Follow her on Instagram or Threads: @sashahupkasnaps.
This article originally appeared in the Arizona Republic: ‘A beacon of democracy’: Maricopa County plans new election center
