The Maricopa County Recorder and Elections Department is using the 2017 off-year to try new approaches to improve the voting system in the county.

For starters, the November election in the county will be done by all mail balloting. All voters in the election jurisdiction will get a ballot in the mail that they can return by mail, drop it off at a ballot center or vote in person at the ballot center.

In Fountain Hills the November ballot will include a maintenance and operations override for the School District and a board election for the Fountain Hills Sanitary District. The Sanitary District election could be cancelled if it is an uncontested election (minimum number of candidates).

According to the Elections Department, nearly 90 percent of votes cast in off-year elections are already cast by mail. Ballot by mail is more cost efficient for the county and for jurisdictions than holding in-person and vote by mail elections simultaneously.

Mail ballots do not require the Elections Department to use outdated tabulation machines or ePoll-books creating a more secure voting system, free from double votes.

Ballot centers will be used in lieu of one polling site per precinct. Ballot centers are not limited to precincts meaning voters can vote at any ballot center across the county if they chose to vote in person and not by mail.

The first three ballot centers will open Oct. 11, 27 days before the election and the same day ballots go into the mail. Five more ballot centers open 10 days before the election and up to 19 more open (one center per jurisdiction) four days prior to the election. On Election Day, Nov. 7, all ballot centers are open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Each of the ballot centers will have a “ballot on demand” system, meaning once the voter is identified the ballot for their jurisdiction is printed for them at that site. This is considered a replacement ballot since they have already been mailed one. The system will be able to verify whether the person has already returned a ballot.

Since provisional ballots from voters visiting the wrong polling station is the number one reason for delays in counting ballots when polls close, the ballot on demand system nearly eliminates that issue by allowing the voter to cast the ballot at any site.

The last day to register for the November election is Tuesday, Oct. 10.