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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fifth Legislature, Second Regular Session
AMENDED
election workers; unique passwords
Purpose
Requires an employee, volunteer or contractor that is required to log in to any election system, except for an electronic pollbook, to have a unique password. Classifies, as a class 2 misdemeanor, knowingly violating requirements relating to unique passwords.
Background
All components of a voting system must be certified by the Secretary of State prior to use in any election for federal, state or county office (A.R.S. § 16-442). A voting system is the total combination of mechanical, electromechanical or electronic equipment that is used to define ballots, cast and count votes, report or display election results and maintain and produce any audit trail information, which includes electronic voting equipment and an electronic management system used to tabulate ballots (52 U.S.C. § 21081; EPM Ch. 4 (1)).
Electronic voting system software must be password protected. Any passwords used for voting system software must: 1) contain mixed-case and non-alphabetic characters; 2) be changed on a regular basis; 3) be known only by authorized users; and 4) not be a vender-supplied password (EPM Ch. 4 (III)(B)).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires, for any election system or activity that requires an employee, contractor or volunteer to log in to the system, each employee, contractor or volunteer to have a unique password.
2. Requires, except for in the 30 days before an election, each employee, contractor or volunteer to establish a new, unique password every two weeks.
3. Prohibits a unique password from being disclosed to any other person.
4. Classifies, as a class 2 misdemeanor, knowingly violating requirements relating to unique passwords.
5. Exempts poll workers using an electronic pollbook to check in voters from password requirements.
6. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Amendments Adopted by Committee of the Whole
1. Exempts the 30 days before an election from the requirement that each employee, contractor or volunteer that logs in to an election system establish a new unique password every two weeks.
2. Exempts poll workers using an electronic pollbook to check in voters from the requirement that employees, contractors and volunteers who log in to an election system have a unique password that is changed every two weeks.
3. Requires a person to knowingly violate requirements related to election system passwords in order to be guilty of a class 2 misdemeanor
Senate Action
GOV 2/10/22 DP 4-3-0
Prepared by Senate Research
March 11, 2022
MH/slp