Arizona GOP, Dems draw line in sand over changing laws to speed up ballot counting

PHOENIX – Arizona Republican leaders hope to change early voting laws to speed up the ballot counting process, but they face opposition from top Democrats who would rather prioritize access.

“People want results,” Senate President Warren Petersen said last week during KTAR News’ AZ Political Podcast. “We live in the era of Amazon, ordering things, getting things quick, going online, instantly seeing whatever we want to see with the internet.”

Ballot counting wasn’t an issue in Arizona when races weren’t close

The speed at which ballots were counted in the Grand Canyon State was rarely an issue during the days when Republicans typically were locks for statewide offices.

While the ballot counting wasn’t any faster in the past, the early results were usually so lopsided that media outlets could quickly call winners.

But now that Arizona has become a bona fide battleground state with the potential for tight margins in the high-profile races for president, governor and U.S. Senate, many believe the current laws, which were enacted under GOP leadership, should be updated.

“When you have very tight margins and very tight races, it just takes longer to call the races, and that’s just the reality that we have,” Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, a Democrat, told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Nov. 7, two days after Election Day, when thousands of ballots were still uncounted statewide.

Petersen and other Republicans, including Maricopa County Supervisor Thomas Galvin, are hoping to make the Friday before Election Day the cutoff for dropping off early ballots at polling sites, mirroring the laws in some other states, notably Florida. Current Arizona law allows early drop-offs up until the polls close at 7 p.m. on election night.

My ideas outlined below can significantly speed up the process with nearly 95% of ballots tabulated by election night. I urge Governor Hobbs to work with the Arizona Legislature to make my “95/1 Plan” a top priority in 2025. Arizona voters & elections workers deserve this reform https://t.co/GFFhreXOV6

— Thomas Galvin: Maricopa County Supervisor (@ThomasGalvin) November 18, 2024

“The ballots that get dropped off the day of the election, those could take five, six, seven, 10 days, in some cases. Those are the very last ones to be counted. So, I believe what we should do is make early ballots, truly early ballots,” he said.

Under Petersen’s proposal, voters who don’t turn their early ballots in by 5 p.m. Friday would have to take the time to go through the in-person voting process to cast their ballots. That could be done on Election Day, or on the weekend or Monday before in jurisdictions that offer emergency voting.

Why do top Democrats oppose changing early ballot deadline?

In the past, according to Petersen, Democrats were united in their opposition to changing the deadline and some Republicans agreed with them. That’s no longer the case.

“I am very confident we have all the Republicans on board now. I don’t think we’ll have any holdouts,” Petersen said. “And then I think we’ll have a few Democrats, and I’m hopeful the governor signs it.”

That last part might be wishful thinking. Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs told reporters last week that she opposes any laws that she thinks would reduce voting access.

“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.

She acknowledged that there is an appetite in some quarters for changes to the early voting deadline, but she’s not swayed by the arguments.

“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,” she said.

Petersen countered that voters would still have plenty of opportunities to participate in the early voting process.

“That’s a fallacious argument,” he said. “People already have three-and-a-half weeks to turn in their ballot.”

Fontes is another high-ranking Democrat who opposes an earlier deadline for dropping off mail ballots.

“What it would do is it would reduce access that voters currently have, and I’m not a fan of that,” he said.

However, Fontes said he would support making changes that speed up the count without reducing voting opportunities.

“When I say change the law, change the law so that the counties actually have the funding they need to do this quick enough,” he said. “Change the law so that you have the infrastructure and the support necessary to continue to have all the access that we want, that Arizonans love to have, and get the results that some people are really clamoring for.”

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