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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Seventh Legislature, First Regular Session
ballots; count; identification number; appropriation
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, the number of early ballots and printed ballots must exceed, by at least one percent, 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. ยง 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 all ballots used for Arizona elections, except for provisional ballots, to be either:
a) individually numbered consecutively beginning with the numeral one, or numbered using an alphanumeric combination, in a manner that links a specific numeric range of ballots to be linked to a specific voting location; or
b) prenumbered and divided into batches of at least 200 hundred ballots each for each election, assigned to an election, and assigned to a voting location within that election.
2. Requires individually numbered ballots to be distributed nonsequentially to preserve ballot secrecy.
3. Requires the range of prenumbered ballots that is used for an election to be recorded on a publicly available master log.
4. Requires the appropriate election jurisdiction to track which prenumbered ballots are distributed to each voting location.
5. Requires the officer in charge of the election to choose one of the ballot designation methods prescribed.
6. Requires ballot printing equipment to be configured to provide for the tracking of ballots.
7. Requires electronic ballots that are subsequently duplicated to be numbered using one of the prescribed methods.
8. Stipulates that ballot numbering requirements do not authorize a method for printing generating ballots not otherwise provided for by law.
9. Requires the officer in charge of elections to ensure that each ballot cast in an election, without regard to the type, contains a unique identifier such as a serial number.
10. Prohibits the officer in charge of elections from maintaining a database of unique identifiers that links a voter to the voter's ballot.
11. Prohibits the county recorder and any other officer in charge of elections from transcribing a unique identifier in any form or manner other than the methods prescribed and as necessary to effectuate the intent of this legislation.
12. Prohibits the county recorder and any other officer in charge of elections from requiring a voter to reveal their unique identifier.
13. Prohibits any person from asking a voter to involuntarily reveal a unique identifier.
14. Stipulates that ballot numbering requirements apply to all primary, general and presidential preference elections, and that unique identifiers may be used in other elections according to that election's requirements.
15. Requires the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections, without regard to the system or method that is used to produce or tabulate ballots, to maintain a count of the number of physical ballots that are printed and the number of ballots that are otherwise generated, including the amount of any overlap, into the following categories:
a) early ballots;
b) regular ballots;
c) provisional ballots;
d) federal-only ballots; and
e) ballots generated in an electronic form that is itemized by the prescribed categories.
16. Requires the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections to post early ballot category numbers on the county's website as soon as practicable, but not later than within two calendar days of them being ordered, printed, spoiled and cast.
17. Defines involuntary as disclosure that is motivated by hope of financial gain, threat of financial penalty or threat of physical harm.
18. Transfers, to the Secretary of State, the sum of $6,000,000 made in a scheduled FY 2026 appropriation to the State Treasurer for distribution to the counties to defray the cost of compliance with ballot numbering requirements.
19. Makes technical and conforming changes.
20. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
February 3, 2025
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