A bill that would return voting to precincts instead of at large vote centers passed the State House of Representatives along party lines on Tuesday, 32-26. If HCR 2002, sponsored by Representative Rachel Jones (R-Tucson), passes the State Senate, it will be sent to the ballot since it is a House Concurrent Resolution, bypassing any likely veto by Governor Katie Hobbs. The bill would establish precincts with no larger than one thousand registered voters, and states that county supervisors may not revert back to vote centers.
Republicans who support the bill say it’s necessary due to the botched 2022 election, where ballot on demand printers failed to print the proper sized ballots, disenfranchising hundreds of thousands of voters. With precinct level voting, there is no need for those printers, since ballots don’t need to be customized for each person regardless of where they vote within the county, they are printed in advance specific to each precinct.
State Representative Khyl Powell (R-Gilbert) pointed out that most people don’t even vote on Election Day, there is about a month leading up to the election where people can vote early, and the vast majority of people vote by mail. Jones noted that 80 percent vote by mail, and said it’s “election month,” not Election Day, which she disagrees with. She pushed back on the opposition, “We did this for decades.” Kolodin clarified that precincts could still offer early onsite voting if they opted to. Voters can also drop off ballots, including in drop boxes, up until Election Day.
Vote centers are relatively new in the state, and around half the counties have not adopted them. The two largest counties, Maricopa and Pima counties, both use them. Maricopa County adopted them in 2018.
Arizona Republican Party Chair Gina Swoboda said during a series of interviews in 2023 prior to becoming chair that Maricopa County claimed moving to vote centers would make it easier to vote since the centers were located along the light rail line, but said that’s not what happened.
