Postal bins with tags for ballots in the 2020 general election.
All fifteen Arizona counties are calling on the legislature to find a “clean solution” to the state’s election calendar issue by February 9th.
“What we don’t need is an all-you-can-legislate buffet of unrelated policy changes,” Executive Director of the Arizona Association of Counties Jennifer Marson said. “An issue this significant deserves to be handled separately so that it can pass with bipartisan support and be signed into law in time.”
A 2022 election law passed by Republican lawmakers lowered the threshold for an automatic recount in close races. But now if there is a recount after the primary, the state could miss key federal deadlines for the presidential election, and military voters overseas might not be able to return their ballots on time for the general election.
“For months, county election officials have been clear about what will solve this problem,” Marson said.
The Arizona Association of Counties and the County Supervisor’s Association have been meeting with the Governor’s Office as well as Senate and House leaders from both sides of the aisle since September last year to find a solution. Now they are asking the state to find “19 additional days for the Primary election and 17 additional days for the General Election so that any required recounts can be conducted.”
“No alternate solution has been presented to get us the right number of days without moving up the Primary and shortening the period to cure signatures on early ballots, among other changes,” Marson said.
“No alternate solution has been presented to get us the right number of days without moving up the Primary and shortening the period to cure signatures on early ballots, among other changes.”
Marson told AZPM News that they are not trying to get rid of recounts, but instead are trying to condense the existing election calendar to prepare the ballots for this year’s election.
“From our perspective, we want to apply as much pressure as possible to this situation, because it's that important. We are not going to disenfranchise our military voters and we're not going to put Arizona's presidential votes at risk of not being counted.”
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