Assigned to GOV & APPROP AS PASSED BY COW
ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fifth Legislature, Second Regular Session
AMENDED
FACT SHEET FOR S.B. 1411
early ballots; tracking system
Purpose
Requires all counties with a population of more than 100,000 persons, effective January 1, 2024, to
provide an early ballot tracking system and provide voters with access to the system on the county's
website. Appropriates $700,000 $250,000 in FY 2023 from the state General Fund (state GF) to
the Secretary of State (SOS) for establishing a grant program for counties to establish an early
ballot tracking system. enhancements to the Arizona voter information database (AVID) to provide
for early ballot tracking.
Background
AVID is the statewide voter registration and election management system used by the 13
counties other than Maricopa County and Pima County. The Maricopa County and Pima County
systems must link to AVID through an interface. All voter registration information is stored in
AVID and the system is used to automatically check new voter registration against Arizona's
Motor Vehicle Department records to secure proof of citizenship (Ch.1 (IV)(A)).
County recorders or other officers in charge of elections, on receipt of an envelope
containing an early ballot and ballot affidavit, must verify the signature and attempt to cure the
ballot in the case of mismatching signatures. After signature verification, the county recorder or
other officer in charge of elections must safely keep the ballots until it's time for the ballots to be
tallied (A.R.S. § 16-550). Maricopa and Pima Counties currently provide an early ballot tracking
system on their website where voters from those counties may check the date the ballot was mailed,
the date the ballot was returned and received by the county recorder and whether the ballot was
accepted and signature verified (SOS).
S.B. 1411 appropriates $700,000 $250,000 from the state GF in FY 2023 to the SOS.
Provisions
1. Requires, effective January 1, 2024, a county recorder or other officer in charge of elections in
counties with a population of more than 100,000 persons and where the county that uses early
ballots to provide:
a) an early ballot tracking system that indicates whether the voter's early ballot has been
received, verified, sent to be tabulated or rejected; and
b) voters with access to the early ballot tracking system on the county's website.
2. Appropriates $700,000 $250,000 in FY 2023 from the state GF to the SOS for establishing a
grant program for counties to establish an early ballot tracking system. enhancements to AVID
to provide for early ballot tracking. FACT SHEET – Amended
S.B. 1411
Page 2
3. Allows the SOS, between July 1, 2022, and December 31, 2023, to award grants up to $100,000
per county to counties that do not have an early ballot tracking system available on the county's
website as of the general effective date.
4. Exempts the appropriation from lapsing and reverts all unexpended and unencumbered monies
on December 31, 2023, to the state GF.
5. Makes a conforming change.
6. Becomes effective on the general effective date, with a delayed effective date as noted.
Amendment Adopted by Committee
• Requires the ballot tracking system to indicate whether the voter's early ballot has been sent to
be tabulated or rejected, rather than whether the ballot was tabulated.
Amendments Adopted by Committee of the Whole
1. Appropriates $250,000 from the state General Fund in fiscal year 2023 to the Secretary of State
for enhancements to the AVID to provide for early ballot tracking, rather than appropriating
$700,000 to the Secretary of State to establish a grant program for counties to establish an early
ballot tracking system.
2. Requires a county recorder or other officer in charge of elections in all counties, rather than
only counties with a population of more than 100,000 persons, to provide an early ballot
tracking system.
3. Makes technical and conforming changes.
Senate Action
GOV 02/07/22 DP 5-2-0
APPROPS 2/15/22 DPA 10-0-0
Prepared by Senate Research
March 7, 2022
MH/HW/slp