State Rep. Alex Kolodin will convene an “Ad Hoc Committee on Election Integrity and Florida-Style Voting Systems” on Jan. 15.
I realize that something associated with Kolodin and Florida might provoke a gag reflex for some Arizonans, including those with whom Kolodin regularly butts heads and, possibly, the Arizona State Bar, which recently disciplined Kolodin for his role in challenging the 2020 election.
But for the sake of Arizona election administrators — their mental and physical well-being — please consider at least one component of Kolodin’s “Florida-style” election reforms: making early ballots early, so we can have faster election results.
Arizona is inundated with late early ballots
Under Kolodin’s admired Florida law, voters cannot drop off early ballots at voting locations on Election Day unless delivered to the county’s central election facility. Otherwise, Florida voters must return their early ballots, well, early.
This has a big impact on voter behavior.
For example, in the November 2022 general election, approximately 5,000 Florida voters dropped off their early ballots on Election Day in Miami-Dade County, Florida’s biggest county. For Maricopa County, that number was about 293,000.
All of these early ballots dropped off on Election Day (“late earlies”) are valid under current Arizona state law.
But to ensure the voter doesn’t vote twice, and to confirm the voter’s identity, election workers must scan and log the early ballot packet, must verify the voter’s signature and must give the return envelope to a bipartisan team to remove the ballot from the envelope.
All of that must happen before the ballot goes to tabulation. This means that across Arizona’s 15 counties, these “late earlies” aren’t tabulated until 48 to 96 hours after Election Day.
This slows election results and destroys trust
Waiting on “late earlies” doesn’t matter in states like Utah, California, Oregon and Washington. Those states all have election laws similar to Arizona’s current law, but they don’t have closely contested statewide elections.
The media can call those states on Election Night with less than 40% of the results tabulated, as the media did for the 2024 presidential election.
In Arizona, the “late earlies” often make up more than 15% of the total vote, and they absolutely can change the leader of our close contests.
Opinion: Early voting shouldn’t hold up election results
That means Arizonans and, potentially, the rest of the nation and even the world, must wait while Arizona processes the hundreds of thousands “late early” ballots.
This time period — the three or four days after Election Day — is absolutely brutal for election administrators.
It’s when protesters swarmed the tabulation facility in November 2020. It’s when thousands of vitriolic and threatening messages flood our email inboxes.
It’s when political parties censure election workers for simply doing their jobs. It’s when we’re working 20-hour days.
County, state lawmakers are pressing for reform
It’s also when voters lose trust in the elections.
According to a recent academic study on the topic published by Oxford University Press, “longer-than-expected vote counting time induces a large, significant decrease in trust in the election.”
This soul-crushing phenomenon happens after we election administrators have spent years and millions of dollars trying to boost election confidence.
This isn’t fun. And Arizona election administrators don’t deserve it.
It’s why we need to change Arizona state law to allow for fast results. It’s why I’ve been writing publicly about this topic since August 2022 and I proposed legislative reforms in January 2023.
It’s also why current Maricopa County Board of Supervisors Chairman Thomas Galvin is promoting a “95 in 1” plan to count 95% of the results on Election Day.
And it’s why state Sen. J.D. Mesnard and state Rep. Selina Bliss offered bills last legislative session to speed results and are doing so again this session.
(Ironically, Kolodin spent last legislative session slowing the tabulation process, but I’m glad he’s now championing legislation that will have the opposite effect.)
Changes won’t disenfranchise Arizona voters
Those who defend the status quo point to the opinion survey from Progress Arizona that shows Arizonans like being able to drop off early ballots on Election Day. But the Progress Arizona study doesn’t frame the situation as a tradeoff with slower results.
Of course, we like being able to procrastinate. But do we really value procrastination more than knowing winners and losers on Election Day?
Others say that doing away with en masse “late earlies” will disenfranchise voters who have been using this method for many years. But there’s no evidence to support that claim.
Instead, there is every reason to think that 24 days of early voting (instead of 27 days), together with the ability to mail ballots through the post office, together with in-person Election Day voting is adequate.
Indeed, such a setup would be far more voter-friendly than the vast majority of states, and voters in those states manage.
It’s time to change Arizona’s law to put the early back in early ballots.
Doing so will mean the world doesn’t have to wait on Arizona. And it will mean that my beloved former colleagues — Arizona election administrators — will no longer undeservedly be caught between a rock and a hard place.
Stephen Richer is a former Maricopa County recorder. Follow him on X, formerly Twitter, @stephen_richer.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Election results are too slow in Arizona. This will speed it | Opinion
