Arizona: State Guide to Counties, Towns and State Services

The Digital Towns Arizona library starts in Maricopa County, with a county guide and a town guide for Surprise, and answers the statewide questions a newcomer to Arizona asks from official state and federal sources.

Arizona coverage is newer and smaller than the Florida library. The Maricopa County guide covers the county that holds Phoenix, and the Surprise town guide has sections on Surprise communities and on desert living. Statewide answers on this page come from the Arizona Secretary of State, the Office of the Arizona Governor, the Arizona Legislature, Arizona State Parks, the National Weather Service office in Phoenix and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Every Digital Towns Arizona guide puts the official source next to each fact and dates the government pages. When a question is local, such as a Surprise City Hall phone number or a Maricopa County office address, the county and town guides carry it; this page gives the Arizona answer that applies from Apache County to Maricopa County.

Arizona has 15 counties and about 7,378,838 residents in the Census Bureau's ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates, with the capital, Phoenix, in Maricopa County.

The Arizona Secretary of State lists the election officials for all 15 of Arizona's counties, starting with Apache County, whose recorder's office is in St. Johns (Arizona Secretary of State county election information). The Apache County entry lists its recorder under voter registration and early voting, and every Arizona county has a similar entry, so the county office is where an Arizona voter's registration questions go.

The American Community Survey (ACS) 2020-2024 5-year estimates count 7,378,838 Arizonans with a median age of 39.0 years (ACS 2024 DP05 table for Arizona). Some 18.9 percent of Arizona residents were 65 or older. These are five-year averages with margins of error, not a single-year head count, and the Maricopa County and Surprise guides carry the local figures.

Phoenix is Arizona's capital, named the permanent capital in the Arizona Capitol Museum timeline, and in 2026 Katie Hobbs is Governor, Adrian Fontes is Secretary of State and Warren Petersen is President of the Arizona Senate.

The Office of the Arizona Governor identifies Katie Hobbs as governor (Office of the Arizona Governor), and the Arizona Secretary of State's office, which runs statewide elections, is led by Adrian Fontes (Arizona Secretary of State). The Arizona Senate roster lists Warren Petersen, District 14, as Senate President, with each senator's district, room and Phoenix phone number (Arizona Senate member roster). Senate President Petersen's own office is Room 205, phone 602-926-4136, on the same roster.

Outside the Arizona Capitol Museum, visitors are encouraged to walk the monuments and memorials of Wesley Bolin Plaza, and the museum rotunda hands out a map of the plaza (Arizona Capitol Museum).

The Arizona Capitol Museum, at 1700 W Washington St, Phoenix, is open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., September through May, and admission is always free; its phone is 602-926-3620 (Arizona Capitol Museum). Walk-in tours began September 1 every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 2 p.m.

A practical tip for a Capitol visit in Phoenix: the museum page contradicts itself. One block announces the Monday, Wednesday and Friday walk-in tours, while another still says guided tours will resume in the fall and are by reservation only (Arizona Capitol Museum). A call to 602-926-3620 before the trip settles which applies. Groups of 10 or more can pre-book weekday tours.

Arizona's 2026 general election is on November 3, 2026, the Arizona Secretary of State set October 5, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. as the last day to register, and early voting began October 7.

The Arizona Secretary of State's calendar lists the July 21, 2026 Primary Election, the October 5, 2026 registration deadline, the October 7, 2026 start of early voting with early ballots mailed that day, Election Day on November 3, 2026, and the official statewide canvass on November 23, 2026 (Arizona elections calendar). Under a 2026 change to state law cited on the same page, Maricopa and Pima counties, where the Postal Service runs processing centers in Phoenix and Tucson, mail sample ballots at least 11 days before a general election and the other Arizona counties at least 14 days before.

Two Arizona Secretary of State pages show stale material. The calendar page still opens with an Unofficial 2024 General Election Results banner (Arizona Secretary of State calendar), and the Registering to Vote page still says the General Election deadline was extended to 5 p.m. on October 15, 2020 by a court order (Arizona Secretary of State, Registering to Vote). For 2026 dates, the calendar entries are the ones to trust, and the Secretary of State calls the county recorder and elections offices the go-to sources for up-to-date election information (county election information).

Arizona State Parks runs parks from Kartchner Caverns and Lost Dutchman to Lake Havasu and Slide Rock, and its annual day use pass covers up to four people at state parks across Arizona.

The Arizona State Parks and Trails park list includes Alamo Lake, Catalina, Kartchner Caverns, Lake Havasu, Lost Dutchman, Slide Rock and Tonto Natural Bridge state parks, along with state historic parks such as Jerome and Tombstone Courthouse (Arizona State Parks). Fall is event season: Bat Fest at Kartchner Caverns State Park on Saturday, October 24, 2026, and star parties at Kartchner Caverns and Alamo Lake on Saturday, November 7, 2026.

The Arizona State Parks annual day use pass allows access for up to four people, a $200 non-commercial pass includes weekend and holiday access to all parks, and passes expire one year from purchase (Arizona State Parks passes). Orders by phone go to 877-697-2757, option 4, weekdays 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Arizona time, and processing and delivery take two to three weeks, so a pass bought for a Thanksgiving trip should be ordered by early November.

The National Weather Service office in Phoenix warns that monsoon thunderstorms bring dust storms, downbursts and flash floods, and it issues Extreme Heat Watches and Warnings when Arizona heat turns dangerous.

A Dust Storm Warning from the National Weather Service in Phoenix means a dust storm with visibility of a quarter mile or less is about to strike or has already developed, and the instruction to drivers is to pull off the road (NWS Phoenix monsoon safety). The same NWS Phoenix monsoon page lists the hazards in order: dust storms, downbursts, flash floods, heat, lightning, fires and tornadoes. Before the Arizona monsoon season, the office advises securing loose outdoor furniture and garbage cans or moving them indoors, since summer storm winds throw them around.

For heat, NWS Phoenix issues an Extreme Heat Watch at moderate (50%) confidence that extreme heat will occur and an Extreme Heat Warning when confidence rises to a high (80%+) level (NWS Phoenix heat program). Maricopa County posts summer heat relief and cooling center listings on its home page (Maricopa County), and the Surprise desert living section covers the same season at the town level.

Statewide questions are answered on this Arizona page, county services in the Maricopa County guide, and city hall and neighborhood questions in the Surprise town guide.

Maricopa County government sits at 301 West Jefferson Street in Phoenix, main line 602-506-3011, under a five-member Board of Supervisors (Maricopa County). Surprise City Hall is at 16000 N Civic Center Plaza, Surprise, open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., phone 623-222-1000 (City of Surprise). The Maricopa County and Surprise guides carry the rest of the local detail, from county services to Surprise neighborhoods.