On Wednesday, Arizona State Rep. Matt Gress vowed to kill a bill that the Governor’s office and Republican legislators have been working on for months to address a conflict in the election process created when Congress changed the Electoral Count Act in 2022.
Gress stunned his colleagues during the House Republican Caucus when he advised them that he would not support the bill, HB 2785. Gress offered little explanation other than that the bill was being rushed through the Legislature.
However, the Arizona Legislature is facing a time crunch as a result of the US Congress’ change to the Electoral Count Act. The change resulted in moving up the deadline by which one of the final steps in the election process must be completed – the transmission of the certificate of ascertainment of who won Arizona’s presidential electors to Congress.
In 2022, the Legislature passed, and Governor Doug Ducey signed, a bill sponsored by then Senator Michelle Ugenti-Rita that expanded the threshold to trigger a 100% machine recount from one tenth of one percent to half a percent. Had Ugenti-Rita’s recount threshold been in place in 2020, there would have been a recount of the 2020 presidential election.
Now, county recorders say there will be too many races likely to fall under that threshold to complete the recount process in time and certify an election by the new federal deadline.
Gress’ decision also puts at risk the voting rights of military and overseas citizens (UOCAVA) voters.
Critics are surprised by opposition to the bill that they say will enhance confidence in Arizona’s elections at a time when confidence is at an all-time low.
They point to the fact that in the current bill under consideration, a provision is included that would enshrine a process developed by then-Secretary of State Katie Hobbs for verifying signatures on ballot affidavit envelopes:
- Asserts that all signatures that cannot be cured or verified must be rejected.
- Directs the County Recorder or officer in charge of elections to conduct signature verification on all early ballots, except for early ballots tabulated on-site.
- Requires the evaluator to examine all broad characteristics of signatures.
- Authorizes the evaluator to accept a signature as valid if the broad characteristics of the signature on the ballot affidavit are clearly consistent with the broad characteristics of the voter’s signature in the voter’s registration record.
- Instructs the evaluator to examine the local characteristics of a signature if the evaluator finds discrepancies between the signature on the ballot affidavit and the voter’s signature in the voter’s registration record.
- Specifies that if the local characteristics of the signature on the ballot affidavit are clearly consistent with the local characteristics of the signature on the voter’s registration record, the evaluator may accept the signature as valid.
- Directs the evaluator to flag a signature for a second review if they find a combination of broad and local characteristic differences between the signature on the ballot affidavit and the signature in the voter’s registration record.
- Clarifies that an evaluator conducting a second review must use the same standards outlined above.
- Requires electronic signatures to be evaluated using the standards outlined above.
- Mandates electronic signatures using typed font be rejected.
- Exempts a ballot affidavit from signature verification if the ballot affidavit contains a voter’s mark and is accompanied by the signature of a voter assistant.
- Contains a Legislative intent statement specifying that the illustrations of broad and local characteristics in the Secretary of State’s 2020 signature verification guide are intended to be used as a reference.
“This is painful for Republicans because they have a chance to actually make some improvements to our elections that Governor Hobbs will sign.” said one Capitol observer, “The Democrats don’t want the fixes so they will oppose the bill, but I don’t think anyone expected that Matt Gress would be the one Republican to tank a win for Arizona elections.”