Hobbs vetoes Republican plan to end Election Day ballot drop-offs
Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a Republican proposal to speed up election results by adopting policies used in Florida that would have eliminated the way hundreds of thousands of Arizonans cast their ballot each year.
Senate Republicans have called the idea “wildly popular,” and the Arizona Republican Party has been pushing a phone and email campaign to encourage Hobbs to sign it into law.
But before House Bill 2703 had even been passed, its fate was known, after Hobbs declared she would veto it because Republicans were unwilling to make concessions. In response, Republicans lobbed the same accusation at the governor.
The bill passed through the House of Representatives on Feb. 12 by a vote of 32-27, and it cleared the Senate a day later by a vote of 16-10. In both chambers, only Republicans voted in favor.
Among the changes HB2703 would have made is ending the practice of voters dropping their early ballots off at a polling place on Election Day, and instead requiring that they either go to the county recorder’s office if they want to drop a ballot off after 7 p.m. on the Friday before Election Day or stand in line at a polling place to show ID before inserting their early ballot in a ballot tabulator.
https://azmirror.com/2025/02/18/hobbs-vetoes-republican-plan-to-end-election-day-ballot-drop-offs/