AZ SB1271

Each ballot cast in an election must bear a unique identification number or other unique designation, except for provisional ballots, and county recorders must maintain counts of physical and electronically generated ballots by category (early, regular, provisional, federal-only) posted to county websites within two calendar days.

Ballots shall be numbered either consecutively beginning with numeral one or using alphanumeric combinations linked to specific voting locations, distributed nonsequentially to preserve ballot secrecy, or prenumbered in batches of at least 200 ballots each with a publicly available master log tracking distribution to each voting location.

County recorders and election officers are prohibited from maintaining databases linking voters to ballot unique identifiers, transcribing identifiers outside prescribed methods, or requiring/allowing voters to involuntarily reveal their ballot's unique identifier.

Hand count procedures for elections are expanded to require counties to post ballot inventory information online, with provisions clarifying that hand counts do not require live video but allow party observers to bring their own cameras for recording.

$6,000,000 is transferred from the state treasurer's 2022 appropriation to the secretary of state in fiscal year 2025-2026 for distribution to counties to cover costs of complying with the bill's requirements.