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Committee adopts amendment and advances bill to add voter‑status fields in e‑poll books
Summary
The committee adopted a verbal amendment changing a required 'shall' to permissive 'may' and sent House Bill 40‑67 forward 5–2; the bill adds status categories to e‑poll books to speed provisional ballot work and provide information to poll workers.
A House committee on Thursday approved a verbal amendment and gave House Bill 40‑67 a due‑pass recommendation after testimony from county recorders and the Association of Counties.
House Bill 40‑67 would require county recorders to include status information for voters on inactive voter lists in precinct registers, signature rosters or electronic poll books. Pinal County Recorder Dana Lewis asked the committee to change a mandatory "shall" to a permissive "may" to accommodate differences in county systems and operations; larger counties said the new fields would speed research on provisional ballots and ease processing.
"The way that their pull pads and systems work are a little bit different than the rest of the recorders across the state," Dana Lewis said, and requested that the draft be permissive to avoid unintended operational burdens.
Jen Morrison with the Association of Counties told the committee that adding status fields to e‑poll books could "dramatically cut down the research time" required when staff investigate why a voter received a provisional ballot, and that large counties would likely exercise the permissive option while smaller counties could adopt the fields more slowly.
After the committee adopted the Gillette verbal amendment replacing "shall" with "may," members voted 5–2 to give HB 40‑67 a due‑pass recommendation. Proponents said the change retains the bill’s benefits for election administration while giving counties flexibility to implement changes without immediate uniform mandates.
The bill will move to subsequent committees or calendar scheduling for further consideration.
