Arizona
Arizona
GradeB+
Year2024
TierMid Tier

Back to Map

View Scorecard for Year

Responsive Gov’s Grade TL;DR

Over the last year, many elected officials within the Arizona State Legislature continued to push false narratives around voter fraud leading to a slew of anti-voter measures passed. However, Governor Hobbs served as an important backstop by vetoing those bills. The Legislature did, however, unite behind an important bipartisan solution to correct a potentially serious issue with the election recount calendar that could have led to the state missing key certification deadlines. Therefore, Arizona received a B+ on this year’s progress report.

Looking Back

Where Arizona Started at the Beginning of 2024

  • Automatic Voter Registration: No
  • Online Voter Registration: DMV ID
  • Same-Day Registration: No
  • Restoration of Rights: Some lifetime disenfranchisement
  • Vote by Mail: No-Excuse
  • Electronic Registration Information Center Member: Yes
  • Early Voting Opportunities: Regular Ballot Early Voting
  • ID Requirements: Strict Non-Photo ID

Relying on the Cost of Voting Index for Arizona as of 2024, we considered the state a middle tier state for pre-existing voting policy and compared its 2024 activity against other middle tier states.

How Our Tier Compares

  • COVI (2025): 25th
  • EPI Score (2022): 24th
  • CLC State Scorecard: 8/10
  • MAP Democracy Rating (2024): FAIR

2024: This Past Year

Legislative Action

Although many within the Legislature continued to push anti-voter legislation based on false claims of voter fraud, fortunately, most of those extreme pieces of legislation failed to gain traction this session. Instead, the Legislature came together to pass a correction to the election calendar.

  • HB 2785 corrected a critically important timing issue with election recounts that could have caused the state to miss important certification deadlines. It also requires counties to open the weekend after general elections to assist voters with curing defects on mail ballots.
  • HB 2482 requires county records to text or email a voter within 24 hours to notify the voter of any changes made to their voter registration record.

Executive Action

  • Governor Hobbs vetoed several bills this session that would have undermined election security and created unnecessary headaches for voters. These restrictions included:
    • SB 1060, which would have greatly expanded poll watcher and observer access in ways that would likely be disruptive to election officials trying to oversee the election.
    • HB 2404, which would have stopped county recorders from sending voter registration cards to registered voters with an address outside the state except for in very limited circumstances.
    • HB 2612, which would have unnecessarily increased the criminal penalties for certain election-related crimes.
  • Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and his team worked quickly to ensure voter access after a longstanding MVD error was discovered, which led to 218,000 Arizona voters registered without proof of citizenship. The secretary’s office worked quickly to cure as many voters as possible from the list using existing state databases. It also asked the Arizona Supreme Court to permit affected voters to cast full ballots in the November 2024 general election. Quick and effective action by the secretary’s team will help ensure that disruptions to the Arizona electorate are as minimal as possible moving forward into 2025.
    • Download the Report