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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Sixth Legislature, First Regular Session
ballots; signature verification; observers
Purpose
Requires a county recorder and other officer in charge of elections to allow representatives of the two largest political parties to observe each stage of the signature verification process for early, provisional and conditional provisional ballots.
Background
Any election called pursuant to Arizona law must provide for any qualified elector to vote by early ballot (A.R.S. § 16-541). A county recorder may establish on-site early voting locations at the county recorder's office, which must be open and available for use beginning the same day that the county begins to mail out early ballots (A.R.S. § 16-542). On receipt of an envelope containing an early ballot and ballot affidavit, a county recorder or other officer in charge of elections must compare the affidavit signature with the signature on the elector's registration record. Additionally, the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections must verify the signature and attempt to cure the ballot in the case of mismatching signatures. If satisfied that the signatures correspond, the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections must safely keep the envelope containing the early ballot and completed affidavit unopened and may deliver the early ballot and affidavit for tallying (A.R.S. § 16-550).
A county chairman of each political party may designate a party agent or representative and alternates who may act as challengers for the party for each election precinct and observe the proceedings of the election. For each polling place, one actor may be present and acting, but the challenger is prohibited from entering a voting booth unless they are marking their own ballot. Only the number of party representatives that were mutually agreed upon by each party on the ballot may be in the polling place at one time. If no agreement was reached, the number of representatives must be limited to one person in the polling place at one time for each political party. A challenger or party representative must be a resident of Arizona and to be registered to vote in Arizona (A.R.S. § 16-590).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires a county recorder and other officer in charge of elections to allow representatives of the two largest political parties to observe each stage of the signature verification process for early, provisional and conditional provisional ballots.
2. Allows observers to observe from a distance at which they can reasonably and comfortably view the contents of any screens or monitors that are used to display information or other materials relating to signature verification.
3. Allows an observer to challenge ballot affidavit envelopes that do not appear to meet signature standards.
4. Requires challenged ballot affidavit envelopes to remain unopened.
5. Requires the challenged affidavit envelopes to be sent for by a bipartisan challenge review board that is appointed by the two largest political parties.
6. Requires the challenge review board to:
a) have access to all control signatures in the voter files; and
b) reach a bipartisan agreement on the challenge before the ballot affidavit envelope may be opened and the ballot tabulated.
7. Requires a ballot affidavit envelope that fails the challenge review to be sent as a challenged affidavit envelope to be cured.
8. Requires, for a challenged affidavit envelope that is cured:
a) the process and means for curing and the name of the curing party to be documented; and
b) the unopened ballot envelope to be returned to the challenge review board for final confirmation.
9. Requires the county recorder and county officer in charge of elections to maintain chain of custody documentation that is documented at each stage of the signature and affidavit verification process by all employees and observers involved in each phase of review.
10. Requires the county recorder and county officer in charge of elections to provide for full and clear visibility of all:
a) signatures;
b) reference signatures;
c) ballot affidavit envelope images;
d) batch numbers;
e) ballot numbers; and
f) voter identification.
11. Requires the county recorder and county officer in charge of elections to maintain complete lists of all challenged ballots daily and make the challenge logs available to any political party and candidate upon request.
12. Classifies, as a class 5 felony, a person who violates the requirements relating to signature verification observation and states that the county attorney has the nondiscretionary duty to file the charge.
13. Subjects a sentence imposed by a court for the violation relating to signature verification observation to comply with the statutory guidelines for sentencing.
14. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
House Action
MOE 2/1/23 DPA 6-4-0-0
3rd Read 2/21/23 31-29-0
Prepared by Senate Research
March 2, 2023
AN/slp