Assigned to GOV FOR COMMITTEE
ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fifth Legislature, Second Regular Session
FACT SHEET FOR S.B. 1120
ballot fraud countermeasures; paper; ink.
Purpose
Requires, beginning with the 2022 general election and every election held in 2024 and
thereafter, ballot paper to include 19 specified fraud countermeasures. Appropriates $________
from the state General Fund (state GF) in FY 2023 to the State Treasurer for the purchase of
antifraud ballot paper.
Background
A county board of supervisors, or the city or town clerk in municipal elections, must
prepare and provide ballots containing the names of all persons who have filed certificates of
nomination. All ballots cast in elections for public office in Arizona, and the cards of instructions
to voters, must be printed, delivered and distributed at public expense and be a county, city or town
charge, depending upon the type of election being held (A.R.S. § 16-503). Ballots must be printed
in black ink on white paper that is sufficiently thick to prevent printing from being discernable on
the back. Additionally, the head of the ballot must include the type and date of election, the name
of the county and the name or number of the precinct. Statute prescribes the order that instructions
and offices must be listed on an official ballot (A.R.S. § 16-502).
S.B. 1120 appropriates $__________ from the state GF in FY 2023 to the State Treasurer.
Provisions
1. Requires any vendor that provides fraud countermeasures that are contained in or on ballot
paper to be ISO 27001, ISO 17025, ISO 45001, ISO 14001, ISO 14298 or ISO 9001:2015
certified.
2. Appropriates $________ from the state GF in FY 2023 to the State Treasurer for the purchase
of antifraud ballot paper that meets the minimum outlined requirements to be used by counties.
3. Requires ballot fraud countermeasures to utilize all of the following:
a) unique, controlled-supply watermarked clearing bank specification 1 security paper;
b) secure holographic foil that is between 10 and 20 square millimeters and has:
i. a proprietary original image in visible and multiple-color invisible ultraviolet inks;
ii. design and origination artwork exclusively owned and controlled by the security paper;
and
iii. a visible overprint that is translucent so that the hologram image strikes through the
printed image when viewed at different angles and is cured so that tampering of the
images causes visible damage to the hologram;
c) branded overprint of any hologram with a personalized customer logo;
d) custom complex security background designs with banknote-level security;
e) secure variable digital infill;
f) thermochromic, tri-thermochromic, photochromic or optically variable inks;
g) stealth numbering in ultraviolet, infrared or taggant inks; FACT SHEET
S.B. 1120
Page 2
h) two-colored rainbow print invisible ultraviolet numismatic designs with fine line security
relief design that follows the primary image's design exactly and with a minimum line
weight of 0.0424 millimeters;
i) unique forensic fraud detection technology that is built into security inks;
j) invisible ultraviolet microtext with ultraviolet image between 0.3 and 0.5 millimeters;
k) raster imaging that is printed on 75 percent of the document face in a minimum two-color
invisible ultraviolet ink with line weight between 0.0242 and 0.084 millimeters;
l) three-color invisible ultraviolet guilloche with an anti-copy feature that is a custom
geometric design specific to the document and that has a high level of secure fine line detail
with multiple line weight and a minimum line weight of 0.242 millimeters;
m) visible colored overt ink with embedded covert, near infrared machine-readable taggant
that is capable of detection through proprietary infrared wavelength light source excitation
and related infrared wavelength emission characteristics that confirm authenticity through
a complex temporal measurement when read by a hand-held, rechargeable battery-operated
proprietary detector;
n) molecular level, forensic-covert security feature included in the infrared tagged and with a
proprietary molecular marker that is authenticated by laboratory analysis using gas
chromatography mass spectrometry and with a concentration in the related ink that cannot
be more than one part per million;
o) microprinting, a security relief design technique that requires banknote graphics software
and with a design that protects infill areas from fraudulent alterations;
p) multicolor invisible primary florescent elements that are printed in register to create a
rainbow effect background and with an image that incorporates multiple security graphic
techniques and is generated using anticounterfeit design software that is commercially
available strictly for approved and accredited printers;
q) a serialized black QR code in which the same code is printed on the top left and bottom
right corner and that can be read by native QR functions of IOS and Android smartphones
that redirect the voter to a web-based voter information page that tracks the voter's ballot
as it is processed;
r) paper that is 8.5 inches by 22 inches and weighs 80 grams per square meter; and
s) a paper receipt for the voter that is a perforated portion of the ballot and that is suitable for
the voter to remove from the ballot after completion and that contains the lot number and
sequence number of the sheet of paper on which the ballot is printed.
4. Requires ballot paper including the outlined features to be used in the 2022 regular general
election and all elections held in 2024 and thereafter.
5. Requires the Legislature to appropriate sufficient monies to the State Treasurer to provide
counties with ballot paper meeting the outlined requirements.
6. Exempts the appropriation to the State Treasurer in FY 2023 from lapsing.
7. Makes a technical change.
8. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
January 19, 2022
MH/slp