The short version
A Scottsdale voter deals with the county, not the city, to vote. The ballot that carries the mayor and council races and any city ballot measures is the same one that carries the legislature, Congress and the statewide offices, and Maricopa County prints it, mails it, collects it and counts it. The city clerk’s job is the city’s side of the paperwork: qualifying candidates, checking petitions and publishing the city pamphlet.
Inside the county the work is split between two elected bodies. The County Recorder keeps the voter rolls and runs early voting: registrations, mail-ballot requests, the Active Early Voting List, signature checks on returned envelopes and, under a July 2026 settlement, early in-person voting and drop boxes. The Board of Supervisors, through its Elections Department, draws precincts, prepares the ballot, runs Election Day vote centers and tabulates every ballot. The elected officers guide explains why the two are separate.
How to vote from a Scottsdale address
Register by 29 days before the election, which for the November 3, 2026 general is October 5. You can do it online through the state’s Arizona.Vote portal, which is also the quickest way to check your registration. Arizona requires documentary proof of citizenship to vote in state and local races.
Vote early by mail or in person. Early voting starts 27 days before Election Day (October 7 in 2026), and voters on the Active Early Voting List get their ballot in the mail automatically. Return it by mail, or drop it at any vote center or drop box by 7 p.m. on Election Day. The Recorder compares the envelope signature with your file and contacts you if there’s a problem.
Vote on Election Day at any vote center in the county, with ID. Each site prints the correct ballot for your address on the spot, so a Scottsdale voter working in Tempe can vote in Tempe.
Early voting runs the show
Arizona has voted mostly by mail for years. In 2024, 88% of Maricopa County voters cast an early ballot, by mail or in person, and county turnout was about 80%. That is why results arrive in waves: ballots received early are verified and counted first, while the large batch of early ballots dropped off on Election Day must have signatures checked before they can be tabulated, which can take days in a county this size.
The checks built into the count
Before each election the county tests its tabulators in public logic and accuracy tests, running pre-marked test ballots to prove the machines count correctly; the Secretary of State tests a sample too. After the election, Arizona law requires a hand count audit: the county party chairs pick at least 2% of the vote centers and a sample of early ballots (1% or 5,000, whichever is less), and bipartisan boards hand count selected races to compare with the machine totals. Then the Board of Supervisors canvasses, formally certifying the county’s results between 6 and 20 days after the election, and the Secretary of State certifies the statewide results later in November.
Scottsdale on the state’s calendar
Scottsdale’s council and mayoral races are nonpartisan and appear on the same ballot as the partisan races, on the state’s dates: in 2026, the primary on July 21 and the general on November 3. A city candidate who wins a majority of votes in the primary is elected outright. That happened on July 21, 2026, when Councilwoman Solange Whitehead was re-elected; the other finishers compete for the remaining two seats in November. The same calendar decided the 2024 mayoral race that elected Lisa Borowsky.
From precincts to vote centers
Until 2020 Maricopa County assigned each voter to a neighborhood precinct polling place. For the 2020 elections it switched to vote centers, where any voter can use any site and each site prints ballots on demand. Scottsdale’s move to the fall calendar had come earlier: the city voted in the spring until the late 2000s, when it shifted to the state’s even-year dates, and turnout in city races rose sharply.
The scrutiny of 2020 to 2022
Arizona was among the closest states in the 2020 presidential race, and Maricopa County’s count drew challenges from supporters of President Trump. The county’s Republican-majority board certified the results and commissioned audits of its tabulation equipment by federally accredited testing labs, which found no problems. The Republican-led state Senate subpoenaed the county’s ballots and equipment and hired a team led by the Florida firm Cyber Ninjas. Its hand count, reported in September 2021, found 99 more votes for Joe Biden and 261 fewer for Donald Trump than the official tally; its report also raised other claims about county procedures, which county officials disputed point by point.
In November 2022, printers at about 70 vote centers produced ballots that on-site tabulators couldn’t read. Voters could deposit those ballots in a secure box for counting at the central facility, or vote elsewhere, but lines and confusion followed. Kari Lake, the Republican candidate for governor, sued to overturn her loss; the trial court found no clear and convincing evidence of intentional misconduct, and appeals courts upheld the result. An independent review commissioned by the county later traced the failures to printer heat settings, paper weight and ballot length.
The recorder’s fight with the board
The split between the Recorder and the Board has itself become a political story. Stephen Richer, the Republican recorder elected in 2020, defended the county’s elections and signed an agreement in late 2024 moving election staff and technology under the board. Justin Heap defeated Richer in the 2024 Republican primary and, after taking office, sued to take those duties back. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled for him in July 2026, and the settlement that followed gives the Recorder early voting and the Board Election Day and the count. Voters see little difference; the question is who answers for each step.