2024 Election: Behind-the-scenes look at ballot printing for Arizona

Behind-the-scenes look at ballot printing for Arizona

PHOENIX - With 41 days until the election, we're getting a behind-the-scenes look at ballot production in Arizona, as well as election security measures.

Runbeck Election Services is the company that prints the ballots that we will use either by mail or in person on Nov. 5.

The company invited the media into the facility on Sept. 25 for a detailed look at the process. The company says it wants to be as transparent as possible during the election cycle.

Employees have been working 24/7 since Labor Day getting the ballots ready. Part of their operation includes printing and mailing out ballots.

Runbeck says it wants the public to know about the security it has in place to ensure the continued protection of election integrity. The company works with partners in over 30 states, including most of Arizona's 15 counties.

"We do our best here to make sure we don't have any errors. We have a lot of automation to double-check things. The process, the procedures and what goes in the mail packets. We barcode a lot of things by ballot style to make sure that voter got the right ballot styles. There's roughly 12,000 ballot styles for a Maricopa election," said Jeff Ellington, Runbeck CEO.

Maricopa County outsources this because the machines are very expensive and it's a huge job.

"Not every human error that is inevitable for every election is a conspiracy," Ellington said. "Humans run the elections. There are going to be small errors. Hopefully small errors. Inconsequential, but there are going to be human errors. That doesn't mean it's someone trying to rip somebody off. It doesn't mean somebody is trying to skew the election."

Reminder, early voting, mail in or drop off, begins Oct. 9.