Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borelli (R-LD5) appears to have hit the right tone with his proposed legislation for improving elections, which is garnering tentative support from several lawmakers and election officials as a workable alternative to attempts by some legislators who would eliminate mail-in ballots and early-voting if they could.
Borelli’s Senate Bill 1629 has been assigned by Senate President Karen Fann to the Senate Government Committee where it will likely be taken up next week. It is co-sponsored by 12 other Republican senators, including David Gowan (LD14) and Warren Petersen (LD12) who have never publicly embraced the more scorched earth approach of some elections bills.
SB1629 proposes to improve the voter registration process, tighten security around official drop boxes, establish training for those who verify voters’ signatures, and create access to an online, central database of digital copies of ballot images.
It also adds a new state statute, 41-1279.08,which would require the Arizona Auditor General to perform certain “election integrity” audits every election cycle in Maricopa and Pima counties.
In addition, the auditor general would be required each election cycle to randomly select two of the other 13 counties for election integrity audits involving voter registration, early ballot processing, ballot tabulation, and polling place administration.
Arizona Daily Independent has learned SB1629 has generated some behind the scenes discussion about the fact Arizona’s counties do not all utilize the same voting system equipment. In addition, some counties require voters to cast in-person ballots at a specific precinct location, while others utilize countywide voting centers.
Those differences have led to a push among some lawmakers and election officials to finetune any audit procedures which would be included in the final version of SB1629. That could lead to a mini “test audit” of a smaller county, with Cochise County and Pinal County as possible legislative guinea pigs.
The Senate Government Committee is slated to consider 13 individual election-related bills on Feb. 7, although SB1629 is not on the list. The committee is set to meet again Feb. 10.
Borelli’s bill is a far cry from House Bill 2596 introduced Rep. John Fillmore (R-LD16) who proposed eliminating many election features which are popular with voters, such as vote-by-mail and in-person voting opportunities prior to election day.
Fillmore’s bill earned the wrath of House Speaker Rusty Bowers, also a Republican, who assigned HB2596 to all 11 non-rules House committees. The move by Bowers, which reportedly has never happened in 30 years, ensures Fillmore’s bill is dead, as it would have to pass each committee plus Rules to move forward to the floor.