The county is looking for specific types of facilities in certain areas across the Valley.

The Maricopa County Elections Department has around 180 voting locations but Erika Flores, deputy director of communications, said they’re aiming to have more than 200 for the general election this November.

“Our need right now is in the far southeast area, so south Gilbert, south Chandler and Queen Creek area; far southwest: Buckeye, Waddell area, and then central corridor near Glendale and north Phoenix,” she said.

She said facilities must be at least 1,600 square feet with electricity, air-conditioning, restrooms and be accessible for people with disabilities. Ample parking space is also required and Flores said the department would also like to add facilities near bus and light rail lines.

“We’re always grateful for our facility partners because we do have a large portion of sites that do donate their facilities to us, but we are open to talking to facility owners about renting those spaces as well because we do have a budget for that,” Flores said.

Property owners can email [email protected] for more information. On-site inspections are conducted to ensure facilities meet minimum requirements. Facilities can be used for Election Day only or two days, 12 days or 27 days to accommodate early voting.

Ideally, Flores said voting locations will be fairly close to each other so that once voting gets underway, people can check www.locations.maricopa.vote for options.

“We have the capability for voters come election time for them to be able to see which locations are busier, so they’ll see the amount of people that are waiting in line, what the approximate wait time is, and so, being able to have voting locations that are just within a few miles of one another would allow voters to then choose to go to a voting location that’s just down the street a few miles and doesn't have as much of a wait time," she said.