Photo by Ellen O’Brien | Cronkite News
Republican lawmakers are gearing up for a showdown with Gov. Katie Hobbs over creating a fix for an impending election timeline issue created by Republican changes to the state’s recount law which could lead to overseas and military voters becoming disenfranchised and the state’s choice for president not being counted.
The Republican proposal, which also includes provisions aimed at signature verification, the use of school facilities for voting and other changes, has already been deemed dead on arrival by Gov. Katie Hobbs, who said that she would only support a “clean fix.”
Any measure that is passed will also need two-thirds of the legislature to approve of it in order to trigger an emergency measure in the bill, allowing it to go into effect immediately.
On Tuesday, the Senate and House convened a special meeting to hear two bills aimed at addressing issues that Arizona counties and election officials say could disenfranchise military voters. The issue stems from a 2022 bill that greatly expanded when an automatic recount is triggered.