More than 524,000 early and provisional ballots remained to be counted statewide as of Friday afternoon, according to Arizona Secretary of State Ken Bennett.

A state canvass to certify the final election results is scheduled for Dec. 3rd.

Approximately 350,000 of the uncounted ballots are from Maricopa County.  The county recorder's office is counting more than 50,000 of those ballots per day, with about 100 people working at a time in shifts from 7 am to 10 pm, seven days a week.

Bennett and county recorder Helen Purcell remind voters that if they failed to present proper ID at their polling place, and voted a "conditional provisional" ballot as a result, they have until the close of business on Wed., Nov. 14 to bring their ID to the county election office at 510 S. Third Ave., or else their ballot won't be counted.

Protesters continue to gather outside the county recorder's office, unhappy with the high number of provisional ballots that were cast and the slow pace of ballot counting.  Activists say there were tens of thousands of longtime voters who were forced to vote a provisional ballot because their names weren't on the lists of eligible voters at their polling place or because of other problems.  Many of those instances were reported in heavily Latino or African-American neighborhoods, leading some to believe that it was a deliberate effort to reduce the number of votes cast in those areas.

In other cases, activists and official poll observers say, voters had to cast provisional ballots because, even though they were on the permanent early voting list, they never received their early ballot in the mail.

PHOTO: Protesters get ready on Friday to present county recorder Helen Purcell with petitions bearing over 20,000 names asking for an investigation into voting irregularities involving early ballots and provisional ballots at polling places.