Early voting starts in Southern Az’s CD 7 special election

Early voting is beginning Wednesday in the special Congressional District 7 election that voters will decide on Sept. 23.

The race will pick who will fill the seat that had been held by the late U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who died in March after battling lung cancer.

The candidates in the race include Grijalva’s daughter, Democrat Adelita Grijalva; Republican Daniel Butierez; Green Party candidate Eduardo Quintana; and frequent parody candidate Richard Grayson on the No Labels ticket.

Grijalva, who previously served on the Pima County Board of Supervisors and the Tucson Unified School District Governing Board, carried 61 percent of the vote in the five-way Democratic primary that voters settled on July 15.

Butierez, the owner of a painting company who won 37 percent of the vote in his political debut against Raul Grijalva in 2024, captured 61 percent of the vote in the three-way GOP primary.

The Democrats have a significant voter registration advantage in the district, where 40 percent of voters are registered Dems, 21 percent are registered Republicans and the remaining 39 percent are independent of the two major parties.

The Pima County Recorder’s Office was set to mail nearly 180,000 ballots on Wednesday, according to spokesperson Mike Truelsen.

Nearly 61 percent of CD 7 voters live in Pima County, while 14 percent live in Yuma County, 13 percent are in Maricopa County, 7 percent are in Santa Cruz County, 4 percent are in Cochise County and less than 1 percent are in Pinal County.

The district includes precincts in Tucson, Yuma, Nogales, Douglas, Sells and other areas in Southern Arizona.

Changes to vote by mail

The ballots sent Wednesday are going to voters on Pima County’s Active Early Voter List, a directory of voters who have signed up to receive a ballot in every election.

This year, the Pima County Recorder’s Office has changed the vote-by-mail process.

Voters will no longer have to place their ballot inside a signed white envelope and then mail that envelope inside a second yellow envelope.

Instead, they will mail back their ballot in the same envelope that bears their signature, which is checked against county records by election officials to verify their identity.

The change is expected to speed up election results by saving a considerable amount of work by county election officials, who will no longer have to take each ballot out of the yellow envelope it was mailed in before they can review the signature on the white envelope and then pass the ballot along to the tabulation team.

Voters can request an early ballot by calling 520-724-4330 or visiting the new dashboard for voters at the Pima County Recorder’s Office website before a Sept. 12 deadline.

The Recorder’s Office’s new online voter dashboard allows Pima County residents to sign in and view their voter records such as the status of their early ballot and voter registration, the jurisdictions they can cast a ballot in and their voter history. They can also sign up for various alerts.

Ballots must be in the custody of the Recorder’s Office
by 7 p.m. on Sept. 23 or they will be disqualified, so voters are
encouraged to mail their early ballots back by Sept. 16.

After
that day, voters are encouraged to drop off completed ballots between 8
a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday through Friday through Sept. 22 at various
locations, including Recorder’s Office branches, at early or emergency voting locations or at voting centers on
Election Day.

The Recorder’s Office also has two 24-hour drop
boxes, which will be monitored by video cameras around the clock. The
boxes include a waterless fire-suppression system and other anti-theft
features.

Those drop boxes, which have been used in Maricopa
County for years, are secured boxes similar to mailboxes. For the CD7
election, drop boxes will be located outside the Recorder’s Downtown
branch at 240 N. Stone Ave. and at the East Side location, 6920 E.
Broadway.

Voting in person

If voters wish to cast a ballot in person before Election Day, Pima County is opening three early voting sites on Wednesday, including the Pima County Recorder’s Office location Downtown at 240 N. Stone Ave, the East Side office at 6920 E. Broadway and the Recorder’s South Side branch at 6550 S. Country Club Rd. All are open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Sept. 19, although they will be closed on Monday, Sept. 1, for Labor Day.

Voters can cast ballots, drop off completed ballots or request a replacement ballot at any of those locations.

Four additional early voting locations are set to open on Sept. 19, according to the Pima County Recorder’s Office website.

On Sept. 20 and Sept. 22, early voting locations will be rebranded as emergency voting locations.

County election officials plan to open 59 vote centers across Pima County’s portion of CD 7 on Election Day, Sept. 23, according to Elections Director Constance Hargrove.

Visit Pima.Vote for more details about voting in Pima County.