Inside a secure Arizona facility printing election ballots

Phoenix — Inside a unafraid installation pinch equipped guards successful Phoenix, Arizona, nan sound of populist reverberates arsenic ballots are printed, sorted, stuffed and shipped.

The Runbeck Election Services installation adjacent nan Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport will people astir 35 cardinal ballots for counties successful 8 states for nan November election, including Arizona, Nevada, California, Colorado, Texas, Utah, Florida and Illinois. 

"We don't over-print anything," said Jeff Ellington, Runbeck's CEO. "So each step, arsenic we spell through, we people precisely what nan counties asked for."

By nan clip voting ends connected Nov. 5, nan installation will usage astir 6,000 miles of insubstantial to people up to 1.5 cardinal ballots a day, capable to capable 51 semi-trucks, and weighing astir nan aforesaid arsenic 2 Boeing 747s.

Runbeck takes a image of each ballot and checks it for thickness. Ellington says attempting to replicate these ballots would beryllium difficult.

"It's sewage to beryllium connected nan correct paper, nan tolerances to trim a ballot are shockingly tight, I mean, they're 3 decimal places, and it's not 8.5-by-11 sheets of paper," Ellington explains.

For example, Arizona's Maricopa County alone, which includes Phoenix, has "about 15,000 different ballot styles," he adds.

The kind, thickness and colour of nan insubstantial tin alteration by nan instrumentality tabulating nan ballot, which varies by county. So does nan creation and layout of nan ballot itself.

Furthermore, each azygous ballot is tracked passim nan process.

"There's a unafraid process wherever nan concatenation of custody of each of these ballots, from insubstantial to ballots, going to nan predetermination office, to nan ballots going to nan voters, is each maintained nether rigorous circumstances," said David Becker, CBS News elections master and governmental contributor.

Becker says 95% of each voters successful this election, including each voters successful battleground states, will ballot connected insubstantial ballots. Becker says those ballots are "auditable and verifiable."

Runbeck useful 30 states and Washington, D.C., and a increasing portion of its business now centers around predetermination security.

"We precocious started trading panic buttons to counties because of each nan threats to canvass workers," Ellington said.

So far, nan institution has sold astir 1,000 panic buttons to different counties. When pressed, nan fastener alerts 911.

"There's a batch of concern," Ellington said. 

In:
• Arizona
• Maricopa County
• Phoenix
• 2024 Elections