Toasting the end

Drinking day election games … Hijacking the government … And light up the Donald.

Happy Election Day, readers!

If you haven’t cast your ballot yet, this is last call.

Get out there and vote.

• You can find Maricopa County polling locations here, Pima County locations here and all other counties here.

• If you’re dropping off your ballot, make sure you signed the envelope.

• If you’re voting in person, make sure you bring an ID with your current address (or bring an additional utility bill, bank statement or other official document with your current address).

• Be nice to the election workers. They have a long day ahead of them.

And while we’re all thrilled that Election Day is finally upon us, a word of caution: It’s gonna be Election Day for a while.

Collecting, verifying and accurately tallying millions of ballots across the state is not a one-night project.¹

Any race that isn’t a clear blowout after the first few batches of ballots are counted tonight will likely drag on for a week or more until the outcome becomes clear.

It has been a long election season, and it’s not quite over. But if you voted, you’ve done your part for now.

So relax.² Have a drink. Or a few. You deserve it.

Here, we’ll give you an excuse…

The rules should be pretty self-explanatory by now.

See you on the other side!

So it begins: Cochise County Attorney Brian McIntyre is more worried about election-related violence than drug smugglers in the border county and said he’s “prepared for the worst” on Election Day, the Washington Post’s Yvonne Wingett Sanchez reports. Supervisors attempted to delay certifying Cochise’s election results in 2022, and McIntyre started driving around with a loaded AR-15 after being threatened for refusing to back the election subversion effort in his deeply red county. Meanwhile, election experts say Maricopa County is a hotbed for election falsehoods, and Elon Musk’s Twitter has proved a breeding ground for disinformation, per the Arizona Mirror’s Caitlin Sievers.

“County government has frankly gotten hijacked and distracted by conspiracies — by rumors on the internet. It’s been awful to have a front-row seat to it,” McIntyre told Wingett Sanchez.

Defending democracy at home: Nearly 3,000 military veterans will work the polls today as part of a nationwide program encouraging veterans to continue their service while boosting confidence in elections, the Republic’s Mary Jo Pitzl writes. Some of the veteran poll workers stationed in Arizona said their election doubts were quelled by seeing the process play out firsthand. Meanwhile, the U.S. Justice Department is monitoring polls here to ensure voting rights compliance, per KJZZ’s Ignacio Ventura.

Commanding a sinking ship: Some die-hard MAGA supporters who showed up to support Kari Lake at an Arizona State University tailgate Friday night are worried about the future of the MAGA movement if their real champion, Donald Trump, loses, Politico reports. While many of Arizona’s Republicans have enthusiastically embraced the thematic move from Barry Goldwater to the likes of Lake, the Senate hopeful is polling behind, and some younger Republicans said they want a new leader.

False felonies: The Maricopa County Superior Court is falsely flagging people as felons, forcing officials to kick them off the voter rolls ahead of the election. It’s not clear how widespread the problem is, but Phoenix New Times’ Zach Buchanan found at least two people who lost their right to vote over felony convictions that don’t exist. The problem, which victims dubbed a “court fuckup,” stems from a new type of offense created in 2022 called an “undesignated offense” which isn’t designated as a misdemeanor or a felony until probation is served. Until then, people can’t own guns, but they can vote.

Prepare for door knockers: Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes’ office released the names of voters affected by a decades-long Motor Vehicle Division data glitch that made them improperly registered to vote, the Arizona Mirror’s Jerod MacDonald-Evoy reports. Fontes lost his appeal to stop the names from being released and now they’re in the hands of a conservative advocacy group and expected to be shared with county recorders and Republican legislative leadership.

@cnnBarrett Marson is a decades-long Arizona Republican consultant. His son, Jacob Marson, is now a leading youth activist… for the Democratic party. CNN's Kyung Lah meets the father and son with opposing views in Phoenix, Arizona. #cnn #news #politics

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Brutinel bows out: Newly retired Arizona Supreme Court Justice Robert Brutinel doesn’t care that a Democrat will pick his replacement, but he is worried about politicization of the court, the Republic’s Stacey Barchenger writes. Seventeen judges and attorneys have thrown in their names to be Brutinel’s replacement, and while Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs almost certainly won’t pick one of the four Republicans in the running, the commission that assembles the final list for her to pick from has to include at least one of them, Capitol scribe Howie Fischer explains. Meanwhile, the state Supreme Court will hold a ticketed event to see oral arguments in two cases at Eastern Arizona College on Nov. 21, per the Eastern Arizona Courier.

After yesterday’s weed/election-themed laugh, we were happy to learn that drug dealers are making a buck off all the election hysteria.

The Phoenix New Times tells us that a local dispensary has rebranded some of its old supply with cute candidate names, like Kamala Kush (formerly Sweet Cheese strain) or Donald OG (AKA Florida Oranges strain).

And yes, you can still send us Election-Day goodies by clicking this button.

1. It never has been, but our big races didn’t used to come down to the last vote.

2. If you really must have more election-related content in your life, check out our Reddit AMA from yesterday and Hank’s appearance on the “Politics Unplugged” podcast with AZFamily’s Dennis Welch.