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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Sixth Legislature, Second Regular Session
ballots; categories; count; identification number
Purpose
Requires ballots that are used for an election in Arizona to be numbered and prescribes requirements relating to the distribution of the numbered ballots. Requires the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections to maintain a count of the physical ballots and post the count on the county's website.
Background
The county board of supervisors, and in city and town elections, the city or town clerk, must prepare and provide ballots. Each time that an election is held in a precinct, there must be more early ballots and printed ballots than the number of registered voters whose name appears on the precinct register of the precinct, city, town or district. For any primary, special or general election in which votes are cast on an electronic voting machine or tabulator, the election judge must compare the number of votes cast indicated on the machine or tabulator with the number of votes cast indicated on the poll list and the number of provisional ballots cast (A.R.S §§ 16-503; 16-508; and 16-602).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires ballots that are used for an election in Arizona to be either:
a) individually numbered consecutively and used in a manner that allows ballots to be linked to a specific voting location; or
b) prenumbered and divided into batches of at least 200 ballots each for each election and be assigned to a voting location within the election.
2. Requires the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections to maintain a count of the number of physical ballots that are printed and the number of ballots that are generated, including the amount of any overlap, as:
a) early;
b) regular;
c) provisional;
d) federal-only; or
e) electronic.
3. Requires the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections to post on the county's website in real time the number of early ballots:
a) ordered;
b) printed;
c) spoiled; or
d) cast provisionally.
4. Requires, for ballots that are individually numbered consecutively, the numbering to begin with the number one and be numbered and used in a manner that allows a specific numeric range of ballots to be linked to a specific voting location.
5. Requires numbered ballots to be distributed to voters nonsequentially.
6. Requires, for prenumbered batches of ballots, the range of ballots used for an election to be recorded on a publicly available master log.
7. Requires the jurisdiction to track which prenumbered batches of ballots are distributed to each voting location.
8. Requires the officer in charge of elections to choose which ballot designation method to use.
9. Requires the officer in charge of elections to use blank ballot stock with preprinted numbers or individually numbered consecutively ballots.
10. Specifies that the requirements relating to the method of maintaining a count of ballots do not authorize a method for printing or generating ballots that is not provided for by the law.
11. Makes technical and conforming changes.
12. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
February 8, 2024
AN/HS/cs