The Arizona Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee passed election integrity bill SB 1011 with a 4-3 vote along party lines on Wednesday. Sponsored by Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen (R-Mesa), the bill is modeled after Florida election law, in order to speed up ballot tabulation. Florida announces election results overnight after an election, whereas Arizona has come under criticism for taking up to two weeks due to lengthy signature verification on mail-in ballot affidavits.
The bill provides that voters who return their early ballots to early voting locations after 7 p.m. the Friday before the election would be required to present identification. Only if they drop the ballots off at the actual county recorder’s office that late would they be allowed to skip showing ID. Currently, voters can drop early ballots off at any location without ID up until 7 p.m. on Election Day. Additionally, in-person voting would be expanded past Friday before the election to Saturday and Sunday before the election.
Senator Wendy Rogers (R-Flagstaff) (pictured here), who chairs the committee, added an amendment, which was adopted during the hearing. It expands voting from 27 days to 29 days, clarified that voters can return ballots to any polling place before 7 p.m. on Election Day as long as they show ID, and allows schools to be used as polling places.
The hearing began with testimony from Petersen. “I’m here because this is a constituent-driven issue after the election,” he said. “In my over 12 years at the legislature, I think I received more frustration over this issue, more texts, more comments than almost any other issue since I’ve been here … So I committed to making sure Arizona could be a state — just like so many other states that deliver election results the night of — instead of being the state who delivered their electoral results last.”
Democrats on the committee accused him of reducing access to voting with the bill. Petersen retorted that the bill also increases access by adding two more days to vote, and adding additional polling locations. “At a minimum, it’s equal access,” he said. Petersen said by having early in-person voters show ID instead of waiting to verify their signatures later will save time since the signature verification process is so time consuming.
When State Representative Analise Ortiz (D-Phoenix) persisted in accusing him of cutting off voter access, he responded, “We need to ask ourselves, ‘How much time do we need to vote? Do we need seven days? Do we need 14 days? Do we need 29 days?’ At what point does it saturate where you’ve had enough days to vote? I think 29 days is probably enough days. You can put in the mail, you can go early in person.”
The Democrats’ primary objections revolved around speculating that a voter could run into a problem voting if they waited to vote until the last minute, such as a bomb threat closing the location, and that voters might not know about the change in the law and show up at the last minute and not be allowed to vote.
State Senator John Kavanagh (R-Fountain Hills) responded to that concern, stating that judges have issued orders keeping polling places open later due to issues like bomb threats arising.
