PHOENIX — On Saturday, voter advocacy organizations filed a request with the Arizona Supreme Court to extend the deadline for voters to rectify issues with their mail-in ballots. This request came in the wake of delays experienced in both the vote counting process and in informing voters about ballot discrepancies.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Campaign Legal Center submitted an emergency petition asking the court to prolong the current deadline of 5 p.m. on Sunday by up to four additional days after voters are made aware of any issues.

The organizations expressed concern in their petition that “tens of thousands of Arizonans risk being disenfranchised without any prior notice or a chance to rectify these issues to ensure their ballots are counted.”

According to the petition, many ballots remain unprocessed, meaning election officials have yet to identify any defects, nor have they informed voters about the need to address these problems. “Because these ballots have not even been processed, Respondents have not identified which ballots are defective and have not notified voters of the need to cure those defects,” it read.

State law mandates that individuals who vote via mail should receive notifications regarding any issues with their ballots, such as signature discrepancies, and they should have the opportunity to amend those issues—a process referred to as “curing.”

As of Friday evening, it was reported that over 250,000 mail-in ballots were pending signature verification, with most of these ballots being located in Maricopa County, which is Arizona’s largest county. Estimates from the Arizona Secretary of State’s Office revealed that nearly 200,000 early ballots were still awaiting processing as of Saturday.

Election officials in Maricopa County did not provide an immediate response to a request for comment sent via email.