 |
ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fifth Legislature, First Regular Session
write-ins; residency; filing deadline
Purpose
Requires a write-in candidate to be a qualified elector of the county or district the person proposes to represent and a resident of that county or district for 120 days before the election. Allows the tallying of early ballots to begin immediately after the envelope and completed affidavit are processed and delivered to the early election board, rather than 14 days before an election.
Background
Any person desiring to become a write-in candidate for an elective office in any election must file a nomination paper that is signed by the candidate and provides the person's actual residence address or description of place of residence and post office address, age, length of residence in Arizona and date of birth. A write-in candidate must file the nomination paper by 5:00 p.m. on the 14th day before the election, except for candidates running as write-in candidates for a vacancy that is due to the withdrawal of another candidate and that occurs after the printing of official ballots (A.R.S. § 16-343). A candidate running as a write-in candidate for an election that may be canceled must file the nomination paper by 5:00 p.m. on the 76th day before the election (A.R.S. § 16-312).
A candidate running for election to a city or town council must be at least 18 years old, a qualified elector residing within the city or town and a resident of the city or town for at least one year preceding the next election, with certain exceptions (A.R.S. § 9-232).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Allows the tallying of early ballots to begin immediately after the envelope and completed affidavit are processed and delivered to the early election board, rather than 14 days before an election.
2. Requires, at the time of filing, a person desiring to become a write-in candidate for an elective office, other than a city or town office, to be:
a) a qualified elector of the county or district the person proposes to represent; and
b) a resident of the county or district the person proposes to represent for 120 days before the date of the election.
3. Makes technical and conforming changes.
4. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Amendments Adopted by Committee
2. Makes technical and conforming changes.
Senate Action House Action
GOV 3/22/21 DPA 7-0-1 GE 1/27/21 DPA 13-0-0-0
3rd Read 2/24/21 57-0-3
Prepared by Senate Research
March 23, 2021
MH/HF/kja