Inside look at Phoenix company that prints, processes election ballots
PHOENIX (AZFamily) — Arizona’s Family is getting a behind-the-scenes look at Runbeck Election Services.
The Phoenix facility prints millions of ballots for dozens of states across the country, including Arizona.
“Everything we do is around elections, which makes us unique in the industry. That is our focus,” said Jeff Ellington, the CEO of Runbeck.
On Wednesday, the company was printing and sorting ballots for California, Nevada and Utah.
At the end of this week, it will start printing ballots for nine counties in Arizona, including Maricopa County, the largest county in the state.
Runbeck also helps process early voting ballots in Maricopa County.
Ellington says once you drop off or mail back your ballot, it ends up at Runbeck.
“We don’t count the votes, we don’t open them. We scan the barcode that is on the mail packets,” said Ellington.
That process is to verify the ballot is legit.
Runbeck also takes pictures of the signature on each envelope and sends them to county election workers to verify.
The county then alerts Runbeck, which sorts the envelopes between those that are accepted and those that aren’t.
“Saves the county the expense, manpower and training that they would have to do. If they were doing that inbound process,” said Ellington.
Maricopa County has been at the center of election conspiracy theories and threats of violence.
Over the years, Runbeck has upped security measures. The facility is gated, with surveillance cameras everywhere and security guards on site.
“We work with Phoenix Police, the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, counter terrorism, DHS, the FBI. They know who we are because of what we do. Just because of some of the threats that are out there,” said Ellington.
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