Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs, a Democrat, opted to veto on Tuesday a Republican-backed election integrity bill aimed at speeding up the state’s notoriously slow ballot counting process and produce faster election results.
The bill, known as HB2703 or SB1101, would have made several changes to the Arizona election process, such as allowing ballots dropped off by voters in Maricopa County to be counted on-site, if the ballots were dropped off at an early voting location after 7:00 p.m. on the Friday before Election Day. For the state’s other 14 counties, voters would be required to show identification if they drop off their mail-in ballot at a polling location after the Friday before Election Day. They would also have the choice to drop off their ballot at the Country Recorder’s Office.
In addition, the legislation would have added three additional days of early voting that were previously limited to emergency voting only. It was modeled after similar bills that were enacted in Florida and Georgia, both of which actually increased the number of early ballots cast.
“When Florida was a swing state, Florida still, with their larger population, had their results in far ahead of Arizona,” said Arizona Republican Party Chair Gina Swoboda.
“After the election, we heard from our constituents who were extremely frustrated after waiting days and days to find out who won the election,” said State Senate President Warren Petersen said when announcing the legislation. “The first bill to hit the Governor’s desk is a bill that will give us election results the night of the election.” […]
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