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Don't Feel Bad Florida, Arizona Is Still Counting Ballots

Gage Skidmore /Flickr

Florida may have been a laughingstock on the heels of this presidential election because of its continued inability to conduct an election without a flurry of snafus -- but it's important to note, folks, that we aren't the only state that took a long time to count ballots this year.

Yes, it took us almost a week to announce official results from Florida, but according to Talking Points Memo, Arizona is STILL counting ballots.

Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett’s said Saturday that approximately 486,405 ballots still have to be counted across the state, representing more than a quarter of the 1.8 million votes cast. About 322,000 of those uncounted ballots came from Maricopa County, which includes Phoenix and many of its suburbs. The statewide total included 307,620 early ballots and 178,785 provisional ballots.The American Civil Liberties Union of Arizona sent a letter to county and state elections officials on Friday suggesting that Arizona’s voter identification law may have had a disproportionate impact on minority voters. Under the law, voters can show photo identification or provide two forms of non-photo identification such as bank statements or utility bills. Voters who did not provide such forms of identification would be forced to cast conditional provisional ballots, which require them to provide identification to elections officials by this Wednesday to have their ballot count.

Florida was among a slew of states that cracked down on voting laws. However, it was among the few that didn't tighten up its photo ID laws, which created so many problems in Arizona.

Voting rights and civil rights groups in Florida are asking state officials to re-write much of Florida's voting rules, which may have led to problems on Election Day. They are also calling for a federal investigation of Florida's elections this year.

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