PHOENIX—A mail vendor sent 3,126 Maricopa County early ballots six days ahead of schedule, giving democracy the one thing nobody requested: same-week shipping.
Runbeck Election Services told the county recorder that the ballots went out October 1 instead of October 7. The correct ballots reached the correct voters, remain valid and may be returned normally. Any that arrive before early voting begins will stay unopened and secured until processing starts.
In other words, the envelopes committed the electoral equivalent of arriving at the airport before the TSA employees.
The vendor accepted responsibility and said it would add controls to prevent another premature mailing. Maricopa County’s recorder emphasized that the office had not authorized the early release and learned about it afterward—an exciting management technique known as “finding out when everyone else does.”
Stop the presses, then check the address
President Donald Trump criticized Maricopa County and rejected the explanation that the mailing was an error. Election officials, meanwhile, repeated that no voter was adversely affected and that mailing something early is not the same as mailing it to the wrong person, replacing it, counting it or launching it from a cannon.
The incident is particularly combustible because Maricopa County has spent years serving as America’s leading destination for anyone who believes a printer jam is constitutional evidence.
The fictional Federal Bureau of Calendars has now opened an investigation into whether October 1 knowingly impersonated October 7. Agents reportedly seized a wall planner, two dry-erase markers and a motivational desk calendar that had been radicalizing employees with the phrase “Why wait?”
For affected voters, the instructions remain boringly straightforward: complete the ballot, sign the envelope and return it through the normal process. No time machine, emergency hearing or cable-news panel is required.