Arizona
Arizona has strict laws to ensure secure and honest elections for its citizens. Arizona laws have been so effective at protecting honest and secure elections that no election has ever been overturned.
Poll Watchers
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Poll watchers are an important part of Arizona’s election process. They help protect democracy by ensuring that all election officials correctly abide by state election laws.
Poll watchers in Arizona are called “challengers”. State law allows for county chairpersons of each political party to designate people who can serve as challengers. The parties must agree on the total number of people allowed per polling place.
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To be eligible to serve as a poll watcher, a person must:
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be trained by both county parties
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be provided with signed documentation by the county party chair
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present the signed documentation to officials at a polling site in order to gain access.
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When challengers abide by the law, they are an essential part of democracy, ensuring all parties are confident in the outcomes of our secure elections. When they do not abide by the law, they may be considered in violation of Arizona’s anti-voter intimidation laws and punished accordingly.
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Anti-Voter Intimidation Laws
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Arizona protects the right for every citizen to cast his or her vote and has an extensive set of laws that protect voters from harassment, intimidation, and other interference with the right to vote, particularly in and around voting locations. Anyone found guilty of violating the voter intimidation law could be sentenced to up to five years in prison in addition to criminal fines.
Voter intimidation includes:
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aggressive behavior, such as raising one’s voice or taunting a voter or poll worker
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using threatening, insulting, or offensive language to a voter or poll worker
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blocking the entrance to a voting location
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disrupting voting lines
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intentionally disseminating false or misleading information at a voting location
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directly confronting or questioning voters in a harassing or intimidating manner
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asking voters for “documentation” or other questions that only poll workers should perform
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raising repeated frivolous voter challenges to poll workers without any good faith basis, or raising voter challenges solely based on race, ethnicity, national origin, language, religion, or disability
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posting signs or communicating messages about penalties for “voter fraud” in a harassing or intimidating manner
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Latest 2020 Audit News
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Despite Arizona’s history of secure elections, the Arizona GOP ordered an audit of the 2020 election results in Maricopa County.
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The audit was conducted by a Florida-based private company called Cyber Ninjas. The audit cost taxpayers $10 million dollars and was given by an additional $7 million by private donors.
After months of investigation, the probe found no evidence of voter fraud, affirming Arizona’s long-standing history of secure elections.
New AZ Voting Legislation
In addition to the audit, Arizona has introduced new legislation that will make it more difficult for Arizona citizens to vote, without meaningfully increasing election security. The proposed legislation would eliminate previously accepted voter identification frequently used by veterans and the elderly, make it harder to obtain mail-in ballots, and make it significantly more difficult to complete and cast mail-in ballots.