Arizona officials move up primary election date to July 21

Gov. Katie Hobbs signed a new law permanently moving Arizona’s primary elections up from August to the second-to-last Tuesday in July.

That means this year’s new primary election date is July 21.

The change was needed to give election officials enough time to meet federally imposed deadlines and make sure overseas military members can vote.

The Legislature had to make a similar change last year after Congress made changes to several election deadlines that conflicted with Arizona’s existing dates and threatened to put ballots for military personnel and the state’s presidential votes at risk.

“This year we have to at least extend the part of the fix related to military overseas voters,” said Rep. Alexander Kolodin (R-Scottsdale), who sponsored House Bill 2022, which passed the Legislature with near-unanimous bipartisan support.

The new law will also move up the voter registration cut-off date for the primary to June 22 and affect other key election dates, including the candidate filing deadline.

In addition to changing the voter registration deadline, Kolodin’s bill also clarified that political party observers can oversee activities anywhere voting occurs. It also allows voters more time to address signature issues on early ballots.