SAHUARITA, Ariz. (KGUN) — Parade to the Polls, an event organized by Indivisible Arizona, stopped by Quail Creek-Veterans Municipal Park on Thursday, Oct. 17 to generate awareness and excitement for early voting.
The group led a line of decorated vehicles to a nearby post office in Green Valley to drop off mail-in ballots to encourage others to vote early.
Early ballots were mailed out to Arizona voters starting on October 9.
Veteran Scott Bourque, who served in Afghanistan, highlighted the significance of voting, drawing from his experiences abroad.
"I’ve seen firsthand what an antidemocratic society looks like,” Bourque said. “I want to make sure that doesn’t happen in the United States. Regardless of who you vote for, it’s about showing up to vote and using that right that we have."
According to Bourque, Arizona’s robust early voting program offers flexibility for voters, saying, “It’s very important that people show up to vote early,” he said. “Because you don’t know what you’ll be doing on November 5th.”
John Murphy, a resident of Green Valley, shared another benefit of early voting.
“You don’t have to wait until the last day and wait in long lines,” Murphy said. “The population that we have here is just too large to get everybody that wants to vote through the traditional polling place.”
Another parade participant, Dennis Desmond, says that early voting is catching on throughout the country as more voters realize their options. He cites the increasing number of early voter registrations in Georgia, which doubled the state’s record, as evidence.
“The word’s getting out there,” Desmond said. “It’s just so easy with mail-in voting.”
The deadline to request a mail-in ballot is October 25, and all early ballots must be received by 7 p.m. on Election Day, November 5.
Early in-person voting remains an option through November 1.
You can find a list of early voting locations on the Pima County Recorder Office’s website.
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Joel Foster is a multimedia journalist at KGUN 9 who previously worked as an English teacher in both Boston and the Tucson area. Joel has experience working with web, print and video in the tech, finance, nonprofit and the public sectors. In his off-time, you might catch Joel taking part in Tucson's local comedy scene. Share your story ideas with Joel at joel.foster@kgun9.com, or by connecting on Facebook, Instagram or X.
