7,000 Votes May Not Count in Maricopa Co.

If the Arizona election is close, like 7,000 votes close, there will be legal challenge after legal challenge after legal challenge. The reason being that about 7,000 early ballots in the county must have their signatures verified by the time the polls close today, or they won't count.

That is what AZCentral is reporting this morning, amist the voter interviews and turnout reports before the polls begin to close.

These voters either forgot to sign their ballots or their signatures didn't clearly match the signature on the voter rolls, said Elizabeth Bartholomew, a spokeswoman for the Maricopa County Recorder's Office.

Elections officials will call voters up until polls close at  7 p.m. Tuesday to get them to verify their signature, Bartholomew said. If the signature is questionable, elections officials can ask questions to verify their identity, such as their address, their Social Security number or other information on the voter-registration form.

Of the voters contacted as of late Monday, 69 percent had signatures that didn't clearly match the signature they submitted when they registered to vote.

For the other 31 percent — 2,288 — those voters forgot to sign their ballot. They need to visit county elections offices in downtown Phoenix and sign their ballot by 7 p.m. if they want their vote to count.

Arizona has promised to be a very close election this year, the first year its been clasiffied a toss up state since 1996. If the election is close, you can take it to the bank that there will be challenges. Let's just hope it does not become 2000 Florida.