Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs maintains opposition to changing state’s early voting laws
Nov 14, 2024, 3:32 PM
(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
(Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)
PHOENIX — Republican legislators plan to continue to push for changes to Arizona’s early voting laws, but Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs isn’t budging on her stance.
Hobbs, who previously served as Arizona Secretary of State, reiterated Thursday that adjustments to early voting don’t make sense to her because they could potentially make voting more difficult for residents.
“My line in the sand has been and will continue to be anything that makes it harder for Arizonans to vote is a ‘no’ for me and that includes the flexibility that we have with early voting,” Hobbs said during a media availability.
Current Arizona law says that voters can drop off early ballots until the polls close at 7 p.m. on Election Day. All “late-early” ballot envelopes must be scanned and the signatures must be verified before those votes can be tabulated. A five-day curing period to determine whether provisional ballots or early ballots with mismatched signatures should be tabulated also can slow the pace of Arizona election results.
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Other states, such as Florida, have different laws that produce quicker election results. Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen said last week that a group of Republican legislators planned to meet with Florida’s secretary of state soon in anticipation of introducing bills to address the issue when the next legislative session begins in January.
Hobbs vetoed GOP-backed bills in the most recent legislative session that targeted early voting.
The Democrat said her main concern is accuracy.
“The issue is not that it takes too long to count ballots,” Hobbs said. “We need to be focused on making sure that we get the results right, not faster.
“I know that people are frustrated about it, but the answer is not making it harder for people to vote and dropping off ballots on Election Day should not be a problem.”
Hobbs says early voting issues on Arizona legislators
Hobbs blamed the length of Arizona’s 2024 general election ballot for some perceived slowness in gathering results.
The ballot included 11 legislative referendums, seven of which were rejected by Arizona voters.
Arizona was among the final states to have projected winners for its two major statewide races — president and U.S. Senate.
“Part of the issue is that we had a two-page ballot that made processing take longer and harder,” Hobbs said. “The legislature caused this. They referred a whole bunch of measures to the ballot. So this is really on them and the answer to that isn’t making it harder for Arizonans to vote.”
KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Colton Krolak contributed to this report.
