Arizona House OKs asking voters to change deadline for early ballots

PHOENIX — Republican lawmakers are wagering that Arizona voters care more about prompt election results than they do about being able to drop off their early ballots at the last minute.

With Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs set to veto their legislation to move up ballot deadlines, the GOP lawmakers are now going to take their case to the public. They are advancing House Concurrent Resolution 2013, which will put on the 2026 ballot pretty much the same changes that Hobbs found unacceptable in House Bill 2703.

The House voted 33-26 Monday for the measure, sending it to the Senate. Both chambers are controlled by Republicans.

There’s nothing Hobbs can do to keep the issue off the 2026 ballot.

The governor made it clear last week she would veto HB 2703. She has repeatedly said she does want timely election results. After all, she said, it took a week for Arizonans to find out that she defeated Republican Kari Lake in the 2022 gubernatorial race.

But Hobbs has a problem with the trade-off: Voters would have only until the Friday before Election Day to drop off their ballot envelopes at polling places. The current deadline is 7 p.m. on Election Day.

The earlier deadline would ensure the outcome of all races, including close ones, would be known within a day or so, proponents of the change say.

“That’s never something that I cared a lot about,’’ said Scottsdale Republican Rep. Alexander Kolodin, one of the architects of the GOP plan. “But I’ve realized over the years that the public differs.”

Kolodin also dismissed comments by Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes, who also opposes HB 2703, that most voters seem content to wait for official results. Fontes’ press aide, Aaron Thacker, said the only people who seem to want early results are the TV networks so they can “call’’ races, something that has no actual official meaning.

“It really impacts voter satisfaction when ballots are being counted for three weeks,’’ Kolodin said. “Voters want quicker gratification. They don’t like the anxiety of not knowing.’’

Put another way, Kolodin said, government is a customer service business. “So, if the customer is dissatisfied by something, then it’s a real issue that needs to be addressed,’’ he said.

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Kolodin said Republicans don’t believe voters will side with Hobbs and conclude that moving up the deadline for voting early ballots is not worth getting faster election results.

“We polled this and asked them what the customer thought of that trade-off,’’ he said. “And the customers overwhelmingly want to make that trade-off.’’

The delay is caused because the early ballots dropped off at polling places on Election Day cannot be tabulated until the signatures on the envelopes are verified, and that can’t occur until they are brought back to county election offices.

In 2024 nearly 265,000 Arizonans turned in their early ballots on Election Day out of more than 3.4 million votes cast overall.

What Republicans are proposing is a bit more complicated than a Friday deadline. Strictly speaking, HCR 2013 still would allow people to take their early ballots to polling places on Election Day.

Now, however, they can simply park, run in, put that early ballot in a box, and leave. Under the GOP plan, they would have to first produce identification when dropping off their ballots, the same thing now required of those who want to vote at the polls.

Democrats say that will only create lines even longer than have occurred at recent elections.

In 2022, for example, nearly 470,000 people out of nearly 2.6 million who voted chose to cast their ballots at a polling place.

Kolodin brushed aside that concern. “It’s not the same line,’’ he said. “It’s just a line to check your ID and drop it off.’’