Key Points: 

• Governor vetoed 178 bills this session, surpassing her previous record

• Photo enforcement and expedited election results bills vetoed

• Hobbs looking to improve vote counting next session

It may have resulted in faster election returns, with the winners and losers known shortly after the polls close.

However, on July 1, Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed legislation designed to help Arizona expedite results. The governor said she could not accept a provision she believed could penalize voters who wait until the last minute to cast their ballots.

Her rejection of Senate Bill 1001 was in the last batch of bills sent to her before the Legislature adjourned for the year on June 27. She now tallies 178 vetoed bills this session.

Among those last-minute rejections was the governor’s decision to veto a proposal by Sen. Wendy Rogers which would have outlawed the use of photo enforcement to catch speeders and red light runners.

The Flagstaff Republican sided with those who contend such automated enforcement ignores individual circumstances that an on-site police officer could take into account before issuing a citation. And some critics argue that the system is merely a means for communities to generate revenue.

Hobbs, who vetoed an identical measure two years ago, has had no change of heart.

“This bill attempts to remove the ability of local law enforcement to keep our streets safe by eliminating a tool used to enhance roadway safety,” she wrote in her veto message.

Rogers, anticipating a veto, had already crafted a parallel measure to bypass the governor and put the issue directly to the voters. However, that plan faltered when, due to the absence of some state representatives, she was unable to garner the necessary votes on the last day of the session to make it happen.

The state does not allow photo enforcement on its highways after then-Gov. Jan Brewer moved in 2010 to have them removed from any state-controlled road.

More controversial, in some ways, has been the question of how to address the fact that Arizona has developed a reputation as one of the last states in the nation, if not the last, to have final election returns.

It occurred in 2022 when it took days to confirm that Hobbs had beaten Republican challenger Kari Lake. And the situation repeated itself last year when delays in processing ballots left many wondering whether Kamala Harris could make up her vote deficit against Donald Trump.

The problem, according to Sen. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, is that Arizona law allows people to request mail-in ballots but, rather than dropping them in the mail box, wait until Election Day to drop them off in person at a polling place.

The problem is that ballots cannot be tabulated until the signatures on the envelopes are verified. And that verification process for those “late-early ballots” cannot begin until after Election Day.

That’s not a problem when there are just a few.

But in the 2024 general election, there were about 265,000 of these ballots, including more than 210,000 in Maricopa County.

Senate President Warren Petersen sought to address the issue by repealing the ability of voters to drop off their early ballots at polling places on Election Day. That, however, proved to be a non-starter.

So Mesnard came up with an alternate plan.

It would still allow ballot drop-offs – but with the option of on-site verification. That would mean obtaining photo identification from those dropping off their ballots after Friday night, a move that would eliminate the need for the kind of signature verification of “late-early ballots’ that would otherwise not be possible until after Election Day.

His legislation would still allow people to simply drop a ballot and leave. And those ballots would still be counted.

But there was a price of sorts to be paid for forcing that after-election signature verification: That voter would be removed from the “active early voting list,” meaning they would not automatically get another ballot by mail ahead of the next election.

Hobbs pronounced that a non-starter.

She said some voters depend on family members or caregivers to drop off their early ballots, meaning they could not appear in person to have their identification checked.

And that, said the governor, presents them with the choice of either losing the option to complete their ballots on Election Day — an option that exists for everyone else — or being removed from the active early voter list.

“I’m certain that we all agree that every eligible vote should count, and no American should be deprived of this right,” Hobbs wrote.

Mesnard, for his part, was unapologetic for offering the measure.

First, he noted, anyone removed from the active early voter list can be reinstated simply by submitting a new request.

More to the point, Mesnard said nothing in his bill would have interfered with anyone’s right to vote. Instead, he said, it simply would have installed “parameters that ensure that we’re not bogging down the system and delaying results of elections by days or weeks.”

“The idea that that is disenfranchising is confusing the right to vote with the convenience we’ve extended people,” he said. “We, in no way, undermine a person’s right to vote, whatsoever.”

Hobbs said she remains interested in possible changes.

“We must balance the speed of counting votes with accessibility, accuracy and security,” she said, promising to work with any legislator next year “to improve voting and vote counting in Arizona.”