Republicans advance Florida-style voting bill to Hobbs’ desk, where a veto awaits

Republicans in the Arizona Legislature fast-tracked a bill this week to speed up election results by adopting policies used in Florida — and eliminating a way that hundreds of thousands of voters cast their ballots each year in order to ensure ballots are counted faster. 

The legislation, House Bill 2703, passed through the House of Representatives on Feb. 12 by a vote of 32-27 and it cleared the Senate a day later by a vote of 16-10, with only Republicans voting in favor. 

The bill, which Senate Republicans called “wildly popular” in a Thursday press release, is headed for a veto from Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. Both Hobbs and Republican proponents of the bill have accused one another this week of refusing to make concessions to the other side. 

“Governor Hobbs, if you veto this bill, you will be blamed across the entire nation for slowing up our election results,” Republican Maricopa County Supervisor Debbie Lesko said during a Thursday press conference. 

Arizona was the last state in which the presidential election was called by the Associated Press in November, and has typically reported its full results about 13 days after the election over the past two decades. The reporting of those results didn’t become a problem until Republicans stopped dominating Arizona’s elections and the contests became closer and more difficult for the media to call on election night. 

“We should no longer have to wait weeks to determine winners and losers,” Senate President Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert, said in a Thursday statement. “The madness needs to stop. This bill will improve voter confidence and end the frustration. I’m hopeful the Governor will listen to Arizona voters and do the right thing.” 

The part of the bill that would speed up election results is also one of the provisions that has received the most criticism from Democrats, including House Minority Leader Oscar De Los Santos, who claimed it would disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters. 

That’s because HB2703 would curb drop offs of “late earlies” at any polling place in a voter’s county at 7 p.m. the Friday before Election Day. Voters can currently drop off their mail-in ballots at any polling place through 7 p.m. on Election Day, but the processing and signature verification of those ballots hold up results reporting. 

More than 264,000 Arizonans — nearly 8% of voters who cast a ballot — dropped off their early ballots on Election Day in November, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. 

Rep. Alexander Kolodin, R-Scottsdale, who chaired the House’s Ad Hoc Committee on Election Integrity and Florida-style Voting, said during the Thursday press conference that legislators had put more effort into hearing from numerous stakeholders for this bill — including voting rights advocates and county recorders — than any other piece of legislation has gotten. 

While most of the state’s 15 county recorders back the bill — unlike most Republican election reform proposals over the past several years — voting rights advocates were firmly opposed because the proposal would make it harder for Arizonans to vote. 

While a lot of attention during the four House committee hearings to discuss the bill over the past several weeks was given to eliminating ballot drop-offs at polling sites on Election Day, no one mentioned that voters would still be able to drop off their early ballots at other official ballot drop boxes through 7 p.m. on Election Day. 

The bill specifies that, after 7 p.m. on the Friday prior to an election, early ballots can only be returned to the county recorder’s office, or to an in-person early voting location where voters would have to provide identification, possibly after standing in line. 

But the legislation does nothing to override a provision in Arizona’s Election Procedures Manual that allows for those early ballots to be returned at drop boxes through 7 p.m. on  Election Day. 

The Secretary of State’s Office did not respond to multiple requests to confirm that drop box drop-offs would still be allowed on Election Day, but Senate Republican spokeswoman Kim Quintero told the Arizona Mirror that they would be. 

Arizona’s Election Procedures Manual — which is written by the secretary of state and must be approved by the governor and attorney general — largely carries the force of law. While the current version allows Election Day ballot box drop-offs and almost certainly will maintain that provision in 2026, that could change in future elections if voters elect new statewide officials in 2026. 

The use of drop boxes would make last-minute voting easier for those in rural areas, especially those who live on the Navajo Nation, some of whom live more than 3 hours away from their county recorder’s office in St. Johns. But it would still significantly shrink the number of locations where voters could drop off an early ballot on Election Day without ID from more than 600 to about 135, if counties keep the same number of drop boxes going forward as they did in 2024, according to the Clean Elections Commission. 

Even as Republican lawmakers scoffed at Democrats’ claims that HB2703 would disenfranchise rural voters who would have to travel long distances to their county recorder’s office to drop off their early ballot on Election Day, those Republicans never mentioned that drop boxes would be an easy and available option. 

Rep. Walt Blackman, R-Snowflake, told lawmakers in the House on Feb. 12 that it’s easy to vote in rural Arizona because “we have things called cars.”  

Kolodin on Thursday focused on the ways that he said the bill would expand voter access: by allowing in-person early voting — without requiring an emergency excuse — on the Saturday, Sunday and Monday prior to the election and by providing more in-person voting locations by requiring schools to serve as polling places. 

Ballot drop boxes have been a controversial topic for some far-right Arizonans and politicians who have claimed that they’re not a secure way to vote and that they contribute to fraud, fueled by the debunked “2,000 Mules” film. 

Republicans in the House shot down an amendment proposed by Democratic Rep. Brian Garcia, of Tempe, that would have required rather than allowed in-person early voting the weekend before the election and sped up results by allowing early ballots to be transported for tabulation throughout Election Day. Garcia’s amendment would have also continued to allow late-early ballot drop offs at all polling places on Election Day and given back the option for schools to opt out of serving as polling places due to space or safety concerns. 

The legislation would also require Arizonans to confirm their addresses every election cycle in Maricopa, Pima and Pinal counties — and every other election cycle in all of the other counties in order to receive an early ballot, even if they’re on the Active Early Voter List. 

Currently, voters on the list automatically receive a ballot unless they don’t vote early in two consecutive election cycles. 

In a Thursday press release, Hobbs, Senate Democratic Leader Priya Sundareshan and De Los Santos called the bill as a whole “wildly irresponsible.” 

During the Thursday press conference, Maricopa County Supervisor Mark Stewart, who supported the bill, said that the county planned to put upwards of $1 million toward messaging ahead of the next election to make sure voters are informed about the changes in voting procedures. 

Maricopa County, where more than 60% of the state’s registered voters live, has by far the most funding available for elections-related communications. 

“Adding further restrictions to access the ballot box, gutting mail-in voting, or shifting additional unfunded mandates onto our county election officials are non-starters for Arizonans,” the Senate Democrats said in their statement. 

If Hobbs vetoes the bill, as she has promised, Republicans have a similar proposal, House Concurrent Resolution 2013, which would be sent to voters in 2026 if approved by both chambers.