Regarding the counting process, one reform I would make is to make the deadline for mailing in ballots the weekend before the election, and any absentees past that need to be dropped off at a vote center. Since a majority of absentees are ie mailed from Maricopa to Maricopa, most should be counted within 12 hours of polls closing. There will be small amount of provisionals and postmarked absentees arriving after that, but that would only be a trickle, and not cause a sudden large shift. I would aim to get at least 95% of the ballots in by the day after the election (and ideally, 99%), not 80% like before.
Just follow Florida's lead.
-Mail ballots have to be received by poll closing.
-In-person early votes have to be counted by the day before election day.
-Allow early and mail ballots to be processed ahead of time. Even if it's the Republican legislature that's blocking this, there's a very real chance that Democrats get a trifecta in 2024 and can immediately implement this for 2026 and beyond.
Arizona is pretty quick at counting the mail-in ballots (received before election day) and in-person votes and usually that's all dumped on election night. It typically comes down to Maricopa County.
The backlog comes due to people handing in their mail ballots on election day or using dropboxes at the last possible moment. And some of the later dumps have USPS mail delivered right on election day, which need to go through the canvas process.
Arizona is a little different from other states in that they allow you to hand in your mail ballots at the polls on e-day. This allows voters to go to the polling place and get their sticker, while bypassing the lines. But unlike the e-day votes which are tabulated immediately, they still go through the canvas process at central count. I refer to this process as "hybrid voting," a term you will not hear anywhere else because I coined it.
Not to sound like a vote suppressor, but they probably need to quit allowing voters to hand in their ballots to polling places on election day. They could give directions to a ballot drop box (which a lot of voters might not trust) or spoil their mail ballot and make them get in the line just like everyone else. The act of handing in a mail ballot on election day really should be discouraged.
In addition, due to First-in-first-out (FIFO) of tabulation of these ballots, the precincts near central count tend to be very blue (Downtown and South Phoenix) as are the ballots. The later batches tend to get redder as the distance to central count gets larger. Ballots from exurban Maricopa County tend to be pretty red.
