Report
Bipartisanship & Common Sense Mostly Prevail Voting & Election Bills in the 2024 Arizona Legislative Session
The 2024 state legislative session showed that leaders of both parties in Arizona can come together to find bipartisan solutions to improve elections – and to stop problematic measures from becoming law.
Throughout the session, Governor Katie Hobbs and state lawmakers found common ground on many key election issues. State leaders passed legislation to fix election certification timeline problems and prevent disruptions to election administration after Election Day, combat AI-created deepfakes and disinformation in Arizona elections, and increase election transparency.
Although the state legislature referred several measures to voters in the November 2024 election – creating a lengthy two-page ballot that could cause confusion for voters and place new burdens on local election officials – the legislature’s most extreme ballot referrals on voting and elections all failed to pass the legislature this year. Extreme proposals that failed to make it to the ballot would have ended Arizona’s vote by mail system and created steep new barriers for voters.
Numerous other bills that would have restricted voter access, made elections less secure, or interfered with nonpartisan election administration also failed in the legislature. These include proposals to ban in-person early voting, end Arizona’s membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), and erode voter privacy.
Overall, common sense prevailed in this legislative session as state leaders were able to put differences aside and work together to build fairer and more secure elections. Below is a summary of the key voting and election proposals considered in the 2024 legislative session.
Bipartisan Election Legislation Signed Into Law in 2024
Arizona legislators passed and the Governor signed several bipartisan election bills this year that will improve election administration, increase transparency, and strengthen election security.
| Bill | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| HB 2785 | Fixes election certification timeline issues to comply with the federal Electoral Count Reform Act. If left unaddressed, Arizona could have missed mandatory federal certification deadlines–potentially disenfranchising millions of Arizonans and resulting in significant post-election confusion. | Signed into law by Gov. Hobbs |
| HB 2482 | Requires the county recorder to notify a voter by text message after a change to the voter’s registration record; if the voter is not subscribed to this alert system, the legislation requires the county recorder to notify them by mail. | Signed into law by Gov. Hobbs |
| HB 2394 | Allows any candidate or Arizona resident to pursue legal action against a digital impersonation (or “deep fake”) of themselves. | Signed into law by Gov. Hobbs |
| SB 1342 | Clarifies and strengthens rules and procedures for mandatory post-election hand count audits, and requires counties to publish the results of these audits on their websites. | Signed into law by Gov. Hobbs |
| SB 1359 | Requires disclaimer language for deep fakes depicting a candidate or a political party within 90 days of an election; includes cascading criminal penalties. | Signed into law by Gov. Hobbs |
Restrictive Election-Related Ballot Referrals that Failed in the Legislature in 2024
The Arizona legislature has the authority to bypass the Governor and send proposed statutory and/or constitutional changes directly to voters under the state’s referendum process. Except for measures to approve a tax, legislative referrals require approval from a simple majority of voters to become law. The Governor cannot veto referrals passed by the legislature, and the legislature has limited power to repeal or amend a referendum measure that has passed at the ballot.
While Arizona lawmakers have referred nearly a dozen measures to the November 2024 ballot, several proposals to drastically change election administration failed to receive enough legislative support to go before voters this fall.
| Bill Number | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| HCR 2032 | Allows voting centers, but only in addition to precinct-based voting locations in the state’s two largest counties; limits the size of election precincts to 1,000 voters; ends no-excuse mail voting and limits the period for early in-person voting. | Passed the House 31-28; Failed in the Senate after passing the Senate Elections Committee |
| HCR 2056 | Moves up the date for voters to return early ballots in person from Election Day to the Friday before the election; requires voters to present ID when returning early ballots on Election Day; requires counties to conduct on-site ballot tabulation. | Passed the House 31-28; Amended, failed in the Senate after passing the Senate Elections Committee |
| HCR 2058 | Requires the Independent Redistricting Commission to complete a decennial census to measure the “citizen-only population” and to draw districts accordingly. | Passed the House 31-28; Failed in the Senate |
| SCR 1011 | Bans non-citizen voting at any level of government in Arizona; effectively bans ranked choice voting. | Passed the Senate 16-13; Failed in the House |
Restrictive Election-Related Bills that Failed in the Legislature in 2024
Far-reaching proposals that would have restricted early voting and imposed significant barriers to sound election administration failed to pass the legislature this year.
| Bill Number | Description | Status |
|---|---|---|
| HB 2405 | Allows county recorders to place voters on inactive status if the recorder has “reasonable cause” to believe the voter is ineligible. | Passed the House 31-28; Failed in the Senate after passing the Senate Elections Committee |
| HB 2472 | Allows voters to contest elections based on chain of custody concerns or inconsistent signatures. | Passed the House 31-28; Failed in the Senate |
| HB 2547 | Bans vote centers and early in-person voting locations. | Passed the House 31-24; Failed in the Senate after passing the Senate Elections Committee |
| HB 2787 | Allows any election official to inspect the voting machines in any jurisdiction with an expert of their choice. | Passed the House 31-29; Failed in the Senate |
| HB 2851 | Requires live-streaming of signature verification and requires a chain of custody record from ballot printing through the voting process of an individual voter. | Passed the House 31-28; Failed in the Senate after passing the Senate Elections Committee |
| HB 2852 | Prohibits Arizona from belonging to the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC). | Passed the House 31-28; Passed the Senate 16-13; Failed in conference committee |
| HB 2876 | Eliminates no-excuse absentee voting, prohibits vote centers, and shortens the cure period for voters to fix minor errors on their mail ballots. | Passed the House 31-28; Failed in the Senate |
| SB 1286 | Limits the use of vote centers and requires the use of schools as polling places. | Passed the Senate 16-13; Failed in the House after passing the House Municipal Oversight and Elections committee |
| SB 1288 | Creates new requirements for testing tabulation equipment and establishes new felonies. | Passed the Senate 16-13; Failed in the House after passing the House Municipal Oversight and Elections committee |
| SB 1375 | Requires individual ID numbers for all ballots and requires the county recorder to release public counts of certain ballot categories in real time. | Passed the Senate 16-13; Failed in the House after passing the House Municipal Oversight and Elections committee |
| SB 1653 | Requires the publication of voter lists, cast vote records, and ballot images. | Passed the Senate 20-10; Failed in the House |
Download the analysis