On a party-line vote, an Arizona House committee advanced a GOP-backed bill that would require the state’s 15 counties to eliminate voting centers and force voters to return precinct-based polling places.
Vote centers are open to all voters, regardless of where they live in the county operating those polling places. Under a precinct-based model backed by Rep. Rachel Keshel (R-Tucson), voters would be assigned to a specific polling location based in their neighborhood.
That’s how Arizona voting worked before 2011, when vote centers were first introduced. Keshel says precincts are what Arizonans want.
“I hear overwhelmingly from the people that they want to go back to precinct voting. That's from all counties,” Keshel told her colleagues during a Wednesday committee hearing.
Her legislation would require one precinct for every 1,000 voters. Arizona Association of Counties Executive Director Jen Marson, who lobbies for county election officials, warned that requirement comes with logistical challenges.
“The fact that we don’t have enough places is what moved counties to the vote center model to begin with. We would have to significantly ramp up not only the places but also the people. You have to staff all of those voting locations with a certain number of poll workers to be in those locations, and we have trouble getting bodies too,” Marson said.
Most Arizona counties currently either use voting centers or a hybrid model, with a mix of precinct-based polling places and vote centers.
House committee chair John Gillette (R-Kingman) said there should be plenty of government buildings to accommodate the legislation, but Marson noted that the government buildings aren’t spread out by precinct and are often clustered together.
Rep. Alexander Kolodin (R-Scottsdale) suggested asking people to rent out their homes to be used as polling places.
Keshel is a self-described “proud election denier” who believes the 2020 and 2022 elections were fraudulent. She’s even expressed doubts about the 2024 election.
Keshel has also claimed, without citing any evidence, that voting centers have higher error rates than precinct-based polling places. And they’re harder to manage, she says, because they have to deal with more voters.
She sponsored the same legislation last session, but it was held up in the Senate.
Even if Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs rejects the bill, GOP lawmakers have a backup plan to refer the idea to the ballot in 2026.
