Actual Vote in Arizona
Access poll tapes after election night
Information current as of June 2026
This page explains how to use the Actual Vote app in Arizona for the next election. New to Actual Vote? Start here to learn what it is and why it matters.
No. Arizona seals everything and ships it: the election board's close-out report goes inside the sealed ballot box to the central counting place (A.R.S. § 16-608), and releasing tallies early is a felony (§ 16-551(C)) — so vote centers post nothing and poll workers cannot show tapes. Results appear on county websites starting about an hour after polls close, along with dropped-ballot totals and tabulation log files. You can also ask your county election office for an appointment to record the official tally sheets after election day.
Your participation is powerful: you join a nationwide team whose recordings get compared, tape-by-tape, against the officially reported results — an independent check on vote reporting, which is vulnerable to error and fraud. We haven’t published an Actual Vote analysis from Arizona yet, but see what a team achieved in the 2024 North Carolina primary. The process is legal and next-to-impossible to abuse for partisan gain: everything on a poll tape is already public.
This information was compiled using AI-assisted internet research along with some calls to election offices and word-of-mouth tips. It reflects America Counts’s best knowledge of how to access poll tapes in Arizona as of June 2026, but it cannot be guaranteed 100% accurate. The best way to be sure about accessing poll tapes in your area is to call your local elections office and ask — see below for ready-to-use scripts.
If your experience or knowledge of poll-tape procedure in Arizona is different from what we show here, please contact us and let us know — we update these pages as we learn more.
Your ways to participate in Arizona
In order of power — how early in the chain of custody the evidence is, how many tapes one person can capture, and how easy it is.
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Visit or book an appointment at your county elections officeMost powerful
Election offices can often provide many precincts’ tapes at once — a great way to cover a whole county on your own schedule.
Email/phone script — book an appointment at your Arizona county elections office
To: [your county] County elections office
Re: Appointment to view and record precinct results tapes
Hello, and thank you for your work. My name is [name]. My friends and I use Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization — we video-record poll tapes and compare them to the official results as an independent double-check.
We’d like to request an appointment to view and video-record the certified precinct results tapes (summary statements) from the [date] election — Election Day, absentee/by-mail, and early voting — for [all precincts / the following precincts: ____]. [Preferred date and window] would work, but we’re flexible and happy to follow any rules your office sets.
Everything on these tapes is public records under the Arizona Public Records Law (Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 39-121), and already public, so all we’d need is the tapes and a place to work. Thank you for considering it. — [name], [contact]Offices are busiest right before certification — offering a flexible window (and to start with a few precincts) makes a yes easier. See the full worked example for more.
See a detailed example of how to do this.
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Become a poll worker or observer
Working the polls or serving as an appointed observer puts you right at the source — the earliest point in the chain of custody, and the clearest view of the count and the tape.
See more details about Actual Vote for poll workers or observers.
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File a public-records request for poll-tape images
Poll tapes are public records under the Arizona Public Records Law. You can request digital copies by precinct and voting method — available in every state, though it captures the tapes later in the chain of custody.
Public-records request email — Arizona central-count tabulation records
To: [your county] County Elections Department
Re: Public records request — [election, e.g. November 5, 2024 General Election] tabulation records, [your county] County
Dear [County] County Elections,
Under the Arizona Public Records Law, Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 39-121, I'm requesting copies of public election data — specifically the vote center close-out reports and central tabulation tally sheets showing candidate-by-candidate vote totals, meeting the following criteria:
• From Arizona's [election, e.g. November 5, 2024 General Election]
• From all vote centers in [your county] County — I understand Arizona tabulates centrally rather than printing public tapes at the vote center, so I'm requesting whatever official tally record the central counting place produces for each vote center or batch
• For each voting method reflected in those records — Election Day, Early/Mail Ballot, and any in-person early voting
• Totals by candidate for each contest — I don't need internal configuration or diagnostic logs, though including them is fine
• If for any combination above no ballots were cast, simply omit it
Digital scans (emailed or via a download link, in any common format such as .pdf or .jpg) would be ideal; physical copies for pickup or mail are also fine, and I understand your office may also offer an in-person appointment to review or record the official tally sheets — that works too. These are public records, and the totals they show are already in the official published results. They'll be used for legitimate, non-partisan vote-reporting auditing with Actual Vote, an app from America Counts, a non-partisan election transparency organization — you can see exactly how it works, and why it's non-partisan, at Start Here.
If you must redact anything beyond vote center/batch identifier, voting method, and results totals, please go ahead. If you deny any part of this request, please cite the specific exemption and let me know the appeal options under the law. Please also tell me of any fee in advance — I request a fee waiver, as this analysis is in the public interest, contributes to election transparency, and is not for any commercial purpose.
Because our analysis is most useful before results are certified, I'd be grateful for the data within about a week if possible; if you expect a delay, just let me know when to expect it.
Thank you for considering this request. — [name], [email/phone]See a detailed example of how to do this.
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Live near a state line? Consider crossing it.If you’re near a border
Arizona makes election-night recording hard — but these neighbors post a results tape right on the outside of the polling place: New Mexico or Nevada. If you live near the border, a short drive across it can be the highest-value Actual Vote move of the night. Honest caveat: a tape you record there verifies that state’s precinct, not your own — it complements your in-state options, it doesn’t replace them.
See a detailed example of how to make a plan to visit polling places on election night based in Broward County, Florida.
Quick reference: tape access by role in Arizona
A companion to the options above. Whatever your role when the polls close — poll worker, appointed watcher, or member of the public — here’s who can see and record the results tape in Arizona, and how the state compares nationally.
Tape is sealed and shipped; releasing tallies early is a felony.
Heads up: Arizona restricts on-site recording of the tape. Don’t record where it isn’t allowed — rely on official results and the post-election records route instead.
Example Actual Vote Recordings
We don’t have any recordings from Arizona yet — you could be the first! Here are some example poll tape videos by Actual Vote users in other states, all taken during scheduled visits to an elections office. America Counts compares the vote totals on each poll tape video to the official results to double-check the accuracy of the vote reporting. See this report from North Carolina in 2022 for an example.
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Pitt County, North Carolina November 6, 2024 -
Buncombe County, North Carolina November 6, 2024 -
Union County, New Jersey November 6, 2024
Recordings live in the public Actual Vote Video Archive.
How we know this — and how you can check it
This reflects America Counts’s June 2026 primary-source review of Arizona’s election statutes and Secretary of State guidance. We’re finalizing the detailed, fully-cited "how we know this" write-up for Arizona. In the meantime, the surest way to confirm what applies at your polling place or elections office is to call them directly. Found something different? Help us verify it.
Find your county's election website
County sites carry polling locations and local contact information. Search "[your county], Arizona elections" if a link 404s.
Ready to help?
Join the nationwide team independently double-checking how votes are reported — starting in Arizona.