Show Low’s early voting site closed after its scheduled week. Now voters there get two more days to vote early in person, because residents spoke up and their state senator listened.
Navajo County ran early voting at Show Low City Hall for one week only: October 12 through 16, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., according to the county’s early voting schedule, as reported by FOX 10 Phoenix.
After that, the county’s early voting moved to one-day stops in other communities, including Heber on Oct. 17 and 22. After Oct. 24, the only site left was the Navajo County Recorder’s Office in Holbrook, which is open weekdays through October 30, the last day to vote early in person.
Residents sound the alarm
Karen Mackean-Slaton, co-owner of the Trumped Store in Show Low, posted on October 22 that the county had “shut down the early voting sites in Showlow.” She said voters who didn’t request an early ballot had no options except “to drive to Holbrook, Arizona” or “wait until November 3!” In a video, she said the Recorder’s office told her the Holbrook trip was a two-hour round-trip drive.
Conservative writer Rachel Alexander replied that this “only happens in conservative enclaves in Arizona.”
Rogers gets it done
State Sen. Wendy Rogers, who represents the area in Legislative District 7, quoted Alexander’s post on the morning of October 23: “Navajo Co – Please get this strightened out!” Her husband, Steve Slaton, said in a video posted to her account that they had called Rogers about the problem.
Rogers’ campaign says she made calls to county officials to get the Show Low site reopened.
By that afternoon, the site was back on. Rogers announced in-person early voting “Monday 26 Oct & Tuesday 27 Oct” at “Show Low City Hall 10am – 3pm” and wrote, “Thank you @DaveMarshallAZ for making this happen!”
David Marshall is the Navajo County Recorder and a former Republican state representative for LD7. The Board of Supervisors appointed him in April. In July, a judge ruled his appointment was constitutional and he could keep the job. Rogers credited Marshall, whose office sets early voting sites, with reopening the Show Low site in less than a day.
“SENATOR ROGERS DID IT!”
“Early voting reopening in Show Low, Az Monday & Tuesday October 26 & 27 at Show Low City Hall! From 10-3:00!”
Mackean-Slaton wrote.
That’s how it’s supposed to work.
Why Show Low matters
Navajo County is Republican country. In 2024, Donald Trump carried it with 29,480 votes to Kamala Harris’s 20,754, a margin of 8,726 votes, or roughly 58% to 41%, according to the county’s 2024 canvass report. In the Navajo County part of LD7, Rogers beat her Democratic opponent 22,783 to 6,287.
Countywide turnout was 73.65%: 51,386 ballots cast from 69,774 registered voters.
In the Secretary of State’s 2026 general election registration report, Navajo County has 28,112 active Republicans and 22,804 Democrats, a Republican edge of 5,308. It also lists 20,925 “other” voters, plus about 1,300 Green, Libertarian and No Labels voters.
Limiting early in-person voting to a single week in the heart of Republican-leaning White Mountain country matters.
Analysis: the access question
The following is opinion and analysis.
Adrian Fontes, Arizona Secretary of State, has made “access” his slogan. He has called efforts to replace vote centers with precinct voting “voter suppression policies,” and he is pushing to expand vote centers statewide. Weeks before the 2024 election, he sued Republican-run Pinal County to force it to follow his rule letting voters at the wrong precinct cast ballots on accessible machines. In May 2026, a judge ruled he had overstepped his authority, writing in the ruling that “the Secretary cannot accomplish indirectly what he is not permitted to do directly.”
The pattern raises a question. When a red county doesn’t run elections his way, the Secretary goes to court. When conservative Show Low was left without an early voting site, the fix came from a Republican senator and a Republican recorder. We’d argue that Fontes’s commitment to access looks selective: aggressive toward red counties, and quiet when rural Republican voters are the ones left out. There’s no public record that his office closed the Show Low site or spoke up about it. Early voting sites are set by the county recorder, not the Secretary.
How to vote
- Early in-person voting in Show Low runs Monday, October 26, and Tuesday, October 27, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Show Low City Hall.
- Holbrook stays open through October 30.
- Bring ID: an Arizona driver license, tribal ID or other government photo ID showing your name and address, or two documents with your name and address, such as a utility bill and your voter registration card.
- Voters without ID can still cast a provisional ballot.
- Navajo County voting details from Arizona Clean Elections
