Fiscal Note
BILL # HB 2304 TITLE: voting locations; precinct-based
SPONSOR: McGarr STATUS: House Engrossed
PREPARED BY: Micaela Larkin
Description
The bill would require that for all elections administered by a county, voting is required to be conducted at precinct-based
polling places. The bill would eliminate to use of voting centers, which are locations that can be used by voters who reside
anywhere within the county.
Estimated Impact
The bill is estimated to increase total county election spending by $1.3 million for each regularly-scheduled election (such
as a statewide primary or general election). This estimate assumes that in order to comply with the "precinct-based
polling places" requirement, that every county locates at least one voting location in each currently established precinct.
The fiscal impact could be lower if counties use combined precincts, where several precincts are served by one voting
location – that combined system could potentially comply with the bill's mandate to use "precinct-based polling places"
while also not violating the bill's prohibition on voting centers.
The potential impact for each county would depend on the county's current number of physical voting locations as
compared to the number of locations that would exist under the assumed minimum 1-to-1 precinct/location ratio (see
Table 1 below).
The bill's requirement for additional physical polling locations is not expected to materially impact the usage of mail-in
voting. Therefore, we do not expect the counties to realize any savings from reduced mail-in balloting (such as lower
postage costs).
We have asked the Secretary of State for an estimate of any costs to their agency for this bill. As of publication, we have
not received a response. The Arizona Association of Counties (AACo) provided an estimate that each physical voting
location has staffing costs of $1,200 for one election.
Analysis
In the year proceeding a General Election, each County Board of Supervisors establishes election precincts based on the
state and local election districts. Statute generally presumes there will be one polling place per precinct, although certain
counties elect to use more than one voting location per precinct. After considering other factors such as expected in-
person voting wait times, statute allows the Board of Supervisors to take the following action: 1) Keep the precinct-based
model in general, but combine certain adjacent precincts; 2) Use voting centers in place of the precinct model; or 3) Allow
for a hybrid system of precinct locations and voting centers.
For the 2022 General Election, Arizona counties had 1,733 precincts, but operated a total of 721 voting sites (polling
places and voting centers) on election day. Assuming the bill would require each county to have a minimum of 1 polling
place per precinct, this would result in the counties establishing an additional 1,049 polling locations for each election.
(Continued)
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The Arizona Association of Counties (AACo) has indicated that the staffing costs for each physical voting location is $1,200
per election. Applying this $1,200 factor to the 1,049 newly required polling places would result in total county election
spending increasing by $1.3 million. (See Table 1 below for the newly required sites by county and the associated cost)
The counties would potentially incur other costs for the additional required polling places, but we are not able to
specifically quantify those costs. Among those issues are:
• One-time equipment costs for the additional voting locations. New equipment costs may depend on how much
equipment from aggregated voting centers can be distributed to the newly required physical locations.
• Challenges finding the additional staff to support the expanded number of physical voting locations. If counties
were required to increase wages to election day workers, the staffing cost per location would be higher than the
$1,200 amount used in this analysis.
Table 1
Summary of HB 2304 Fiscal Impact By County
County
2022 Reported
Voting Sites
2022 Reported
Precincts
Potential New
Voting Sites
Cost of New
Voting Sites
Apache 44 44 - 0
Cochise 18 55 37 44,400
Coconino 45 75 30 36,000
Gila 17 39 22 26,400
Graham 9 22 13 15,600
Greenlee 5 8 3 3,600
La Paz 11 11 - 0
Maricopa 223 935 712 854,400
Mohave 36 24 - 0
Navajo 39 14 - 0
Pima 129 278 149 178,800
Pinal 97 109 12 14,400
Santa Cruz 13 24 11 13,200
Yavapai 27 49 22 26,400
Yuma 8 46 38 45,600
Total 1,049 $1,258,800
In addition to the impacts described above, the bill contemplates additional conforming legislation to implement the new
election requirements. Any subsequent legislation that enacts implementing details could change the bill's fiscal impact.
2/17/23