PHOENIX (CN) — For the second year in a row, Arizona lawmakers promoted a bill that would ban the use of general vote centers and instead require Arizonans to vote at a specific polling place based on their precinct.
In 2018, nearly every county in Arizona moved away from precinct-based voting in favor of vote centers, which allow voters to cast a ballot at any established vote center in their county. But House Bill 2017 and House Concurrent Resolution 2002 would return the state to precinct-based voting, in which groups of 1,000 voters would be assigned to a precinct and be required to cast their ballots at a specific polling place within their precinct.
Bill sponsor Rachel Keshel, a Republican state representative from Chandler, says precinct voting would reduce voter confusion and re-instill trust in the state’s election process. With only 1,000 people assigned to a polling place, the results would mean shorter lines and fewer printer errors that have caused chaos and fed distrust in past elections.
“It’s a lot easier to manage a thousand ballots than thousands from all over the city of Tucson or all over Maricopa County,” Keshel said in a House Elections Committee meeting Wednesday afternoon.
But county officials say returning to a precinct model may be logistically impossible. Jen Marson, executive director of the Arizona Association of Counties, told the committee that some counties may not have enough government buildings to establish a polling place for every 1,000 voters.
“If we literally can’t find enough spaces, what do we do then?” Marson asked.
The more than 2 million registered voters in Maricopa County, home to the state capital of Phoenix, would require the county to operate at least 2,000 polling places, each staffed by eight to 12 people, rather than the 246 vote centers it operated for the 2024 general election.
Marson said there just aren’t enough government buildings distributed across counties to each serve 1,000 people close to their homes. If an apartment complex holds more than 1,000 people, she added, then the county would have to split that building into separate precincts, meaning it couldn’t use that apartment’s common space as a polling place.
Marson suggested that the Legislature amend the bill to allow for larger precinct sizes and add a contingency to allow counties to use general vote centers if they can’t find enough government buildings to serve each precinct.
Before 2018, counties placed no limit on the number of voters in a precinct.
Maricopa County Recorder Justin Heap argued Wednesday that while the vote center model may be easier on the government, the precinct model is easier on the voters. More polling places with a limited number of voters means voters would have to travel shorter distances and wait in shorter lines.
But Katelynn Contreras, representing the American Civil Liberties Union, countered that many voters rely on the flexibility of vote centers, allowing them to cast a ballot at a location closer to their school or place of work if it’s far from where they live. Constricting a voter to a single polling place may disenfranchise some if they can’t get home from work or school in time to make it to their polling place.
Critics of the bill also fear it would entirely eliminate in-person early voting because precinct-based polling locations haven’t been open to in-person early voting in the past. Keshel said that wasn’t in her intention and suggested they clarify the language.
If Democratic Governor Katie Hobbs vetoes the House bill, voters could have a chance to decide the issue directly via the concurrent resolution, which would go to them in the form of a ballot question if the Republican-led Legislature votes to approve it.
Both matters will soon be taken up on the House floor.