This Arizona ballot maker had robust security in place before 2020 elections. For 2024, it's adding more

A Phoenix-based company that prints voting materials for counties across the nation is battening down the hatches ahead of this year's pivotal election cycle.

Runbeck Election Services already had fisheye cameras, an access-controlled facility, robust cybersecurity measures, GPS-tracked trucks and a "no phone" policy for employees in 2020.

It is now adding to its security list in the wake of two elections that saw false allegations of fraud and subsequent threats against election workers.

"You had the concern around elections," said company President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Ellington. "I wanted to make sure that our employees felt safe and that our counties that we contract with knew that what was going on here was safe and secure."

Ellington said the ballot printing facility added armed officers when election conspiracies first took root after Donald Trump's loss to Joe Biden in the most recent presidential election. He and some of his employees have received threats related to election misinformation.

"It's not OK," he said. "One of the most important jobs in this country is our right to vote and performing elections."

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Since then, his company has made other tweaks. It recently completed an expansion of its facility and added additional cameras to the space, Ellington said. It is preparing to create a designated area for election observers with a live video feed.

"Two people out here is manageable," Ellington said from the warehouse floor of the facility. "But if you start to get too many, with fork trucks and pallet jacks, somebody could get run over. So we're just going to try to keep people in a room where they can watch everything. If they want to come out and see something, there will be a process to bring them out here."

Ellington said the company also revised its ballot custody forms to increase clarity around the chain of custody for the upcoming year and now has a formal policy stating its employees may not submit their own early ballots at work.

Those updates come after former Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake challenged the results of her race, which she lost by about 17,000 votes.

Her lawsuit against election officials alleged deficiencies in chain of custody forms documenting some early ballot transfers between Maricopa County and Runbeck. Lake, who is now running for U.S. Senate, also said Runbeck employees were allowed to drop off their and their families' early ballots at the company's facility.

Lake's suit has been repeatedly dismissed by Arizona courts. Nonetheless, the Grand Canyon State is expected to remain politically heated and a hotbed of election denialism heading into a year with numerous high-profile races.

How a ballot gets made

Election officials can't just get ballots — or envelopes, voter cards and other printed election materials — from any office supply store.

Instead, various counties across about two dozen states turn to Runbeck Election Services.

Here's how your ballot gets made.

Step 1: What to print. When county election officials order ballots, they tell Runbeck exactly how many to print and what races should be on each ballot. They also prepare translations for voters who have requested ballots in a language other than English.

Step 2: Getting the right ballot in the right envelope. Every ballot is marked with a barcode that, when scanned, tells staff its layout and content. The envelope of every early ballot is marked with a barcode unique to each voter. That helps staff ensure the correct early ballots are headed to the right voters without being able to trace how they voted later.

Step 3: Shipping ballots. Once the in-person ballots are packaged and ready to go, they're shipped to election officials. Early ballots headed to Arizona voters are transported to a mail facility in Phoenix to get shipped out.

Early ballots going out-of-state can either go through the Phoenix postal facility or get trucked to post offices closer to their final destination.

What happens when the early ballots come back?

Once an early voter fills out their ballot and mails it back, there's a process to verify the voter's signature. Runbeck plays a role there, too.

Runbeck provides software and machines for counties to scan the outside of early ballot envelopes and capture an image of each voter's signed affidavit. Those images go into a secure, automated system for elections staffers to review, while the ballots are safely stored.

For most counties, that process happens at their election facilities, where they are assisted by Runbeck staffers. Maricopa County is an exception because of its proximity to the company. A bipartisan team from the county delivers completed early ballots in their sealed envelopes to Runbeck's warehouse to be scanned.

While at Runbeck, the ballots in their sealed envelopes are stored in a secure vault that only certain employees can access.

Once scanned, the still-unopened early ballot envelopes get transported to the Maricopa County Elections Department, where they are stored in another vault. After elections staffers verify signatures, each ballot is separated from its envelope by a bipartisan team. At that point, the ballot becomes anonymous and it goes to the tabulation room to be counted.

Runbeck has no involvement in the tallying process.

Facility joins others in ramping up security in 2024

The company isn't alone in adding new security features.

In Coconino County, local officials recently unveiled a new 9,000-square-foot facility to house election operations. It's a marked improvement from the previous setup, where staff members were spread across multiple offices.

The new building comes with lots of security cameras and tabulation rooms that are only accessible by key card, with restrictions on who can enter.

Meanwhile, Pinal County is still building its brand-new facility in Florence. The building will include a public observation room that will give an almost 360-degree view of all working spaces. A public bathroom will ensure visitors won't have to be escorted through secure areas.

It also will feature an enclosed parking lot and locked rooms for ballot storage on election night.

Sasha Hupka covers county government and election administration for The Arizona Republic. Do you have a tip to share on elections or voting? Reach her at sasha.hupka@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: @SashaHupka. Follow her on Instagram or Threads: @sashahupkasnaps.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona ballot printing company boosts security before 2024 elections