REFERENCE TITLE: ballot tabulation; hand count comparison

State of Arizona

Senate

Fifty-sixth Legislature

First Regular Session

2023

SB 1471

Introduced by

Senator Kavanagh

An Act

providing for a tabulation of certain ballots.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Ballot retabulation; hand count comparison; staffing estimate; report; delayed repeal

A. Beginning not later than September 1, 2023, the officer in charge of elections in a county with a population of more than two million persons shall randomly select four election precincts in the county from the ballot test decks used for logic and accuracy testing for the 2022 general election and shall recount all races using one hundred of those ballots from each precinct. The recounting shall include the use of duplication boards, adjudications boards and other functions generally used or required in ballot tabulations. The hand count boards shall consist of volunteers who are members of the three largest political parties in the state and shall include on each team a member of at least two different political parties.  Notwithstanding section 16-624, Arizona Revised Statutes, the county treasurer shall provide the specified ballots to the officer in charge of elections. The county officer in charge of elections shall process separately the selected 2022 general election ballots as follows:

1. The actual ballots shall be counted through a county ballot tabulator and the results of that tabulation shall remain confidential until after the hand count prescribed in this section is completed.

2. The actual ballots shall be photocopied and the photocopies shall be hand counted using the procedures prescribed in the secretary of state's instructions and procedures manual adopted pursuant to section 16-452, Arizona Revised Statutes.  During the hand counting, the officer in charge of elections shall calculate how many ballots per hour each hand counting team is able to process.

3. The officer in charge of elections shall compare the tabulator total and the hand count total for each precinct and if there is a difference in the totals that is greater than one-tenth of one percent, the actual ballots shall be retabulated using a different tabulator and the hand counted photocopies of ballots shall be recounted using different hand counters.

4. After determining the average number of ballots counted for each hand counting team, the officer in charge of elections shall estimate how many persons working sixteen hours each day would be required to hand count the entire number of ballots cast in the November 2022 election.

B. The officer in charge of elections shall report on the results of the tabulations and calculations, including the number of ballots counted per hand counting team per hour. The officer in charge of elections shall provide that report to the governor, the president of the senate, the speaker of the house of representatives and the county recorder and shall file a copy with the secretary of state.

C. This section is repealed from and after February 29, 2024.