PHOENIX — A Republican lawmaker is again trying to bar counties from allowing polling locations open to any county voter, but this time, voters will have the ultimate say.
Last year, Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed State Rep. Rachel Keshel’s bill to ban voting centers and require counties to conduct precinct voting. This legislative session, Keshel introduced the measure as a ballot measure, which can’t be vetoed.
“I do feel that a majority of constituents that reach out to me are wanting to go away from the vote-center model back to the precinct model,” Keshel told ABC15.
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Under the vote-center model, eligible voters can cast their ballot at any of their county’s polling locations, or vote centers. Under a precinct model, voters are assigned to a specific precinct based on their address and can only cast a ballot at their precinct’s designated polling location.
“When I started voting many, many years ago in Colorado, we had our precinct, and we either went to the church or school or whatever polling station was in our district, and we were able to just cast our vote there,” Keshel said. “We were with our neighbors and our friends and people that we saw in the community every day.”
Precincts vs. vote centers
Under current Arizona law, counties can choose which model to use.
“When you take away ... what we would call local control, the ability to decide what works best for your voters, that's a problem for our counties,” said Jen Marson, executive director of the Arizona Association of Counties, which represents the state’s counties.
The vote-center model works very well in the counties that use it, she told ABC15, pointing to Yavapai County.
“I think that Yavapai County has been using vote centers since 2011,” she said. “I think they were the first county to do it. It's a model that works well in that county that is a very strong red county.”
House Concurrent Resolution 2016 would require precincts be no larger than 2,500 voters, an increase from the 1,000 specified in the bill Hobbs vetoed.
But Marson told the House Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections panel on Wednesday that some rural Arizona counties don’t feel such a precinct model is feasible, given their large geography and staffing resources.
Precinct models would also necessitate more polling locations and enough people to staff them, she said.
Keshel told ABC15 she was willing to work with the counties, noting that she increased the size of the precincts to 2,500 based on their feedback to last year’s bill.
“I'm open to making some tweaks and amendments in the legislation," she said.
Keshel also told ABC15 that multiple precincts could be included at one polling location.
Measure would also ban in-person early voting
HCR 2016 would also ban in-person early voting.
“I wish that we had Election Day, and not election month, like we used to,” Keshel said. “That's just my personal opinion on it.”
If HCR 2016 passes the Legislature and is approved by voters, it would have a major effect on Maricopa County.
In 2024, a record 218,368 Maricopa County voters voted early in-person at a vote center. That works out to about 11% of voters, compared to 12% of voters who cast their ballot in person on Election Day.
And many voters drop off their ballots at a vote center or drop box before Election Day.
Mason said offering flexibility is a win for both voters and counties.
“The counties have long held the position that our goal is to get as many people to vote as possible, efficiently for the voter and for the county,” she said.
HCR 2016 cleared the House Federalism, Military Affairs & Elections panel on a party-line Wednesday.
If it passes both the House and Senate, the measure will go on the November ballot.
Is there a bill or topic you want to see me cover at the Arizona Capitol? Email me at manuelita.beck@abc15.com or message me on Instagram or TikTok.
