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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fifth Legislature, First Regular Session
election equipment; access; locks
Purpose
Requires any method of physical or electronic access to a voting machine or electronic pollbook to be secured to prevent unauthorized access to the unit during an election. Requires a county or other officer in charge of elections to document and verify security procedures regarding access before a voting machine or electronic pollbook is placed into service for an election.
Background
At least 30 minutes before the opening of the polls, precinct election officers must arrive at the polling location to set up voting booths, open and check all ballots, supplies, records and forms and post the sample ballots and instructions to voters. An election board inspector must produce a sealed package of official ballots and publicly open the package and deliver one book or block of ballots to the election board judges. One of the judges must keep the ballots within the polling location in plain view of the public and deliver the ballots only to qualified voters (A.R.S. § 16-572). As soon as the polls have been closed and the last qualified voter has voted, the voting or marking devices must be sealed against further voting (A.R.S. § 16-566).
One election officer must attend the voting machine located at a polling location, while the other election officers attend the pollbooks and perform other statutorily-outlined duties. A voting machine must be placed and protected in a manner that is accessible to only one voter at a time and is in the full view of all election officers and observers at the polling location. During the proceedings of elections, the door or other compartment of the machine may not be unlocked or opened. The counters of the machine may not be exposed except for good and sufficient reasons (A.R.S. § 16-570).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires any port, plug, door or other method of physical or electronic access to a voting machine or electronic pollbook to be secured in a manner that prevents unauthorized access to the voting machine or electronic pollbook during an election.
2. Requires a county or other officer in charge of elections to document and verify security procedures regarding access before a voting machine or electronic pollbook is placed into service for an election.
3. Makes a technical change.
4. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Amendments Adopted by Committee
· Requires an officer in charge of elections to document and verify security procedures regarding access before a voting machine or electronic pollbook is placed into service for an election.
Senate Action House Action
GOV 3/22/21 DPA 7-0-1 GE 2/3/21 DP 13-0-0-0
3rd Read 3/1/21 52-0-8
Prepared by Senate Research
March 23, 2021
MH/HF/kja