Recorders press for "wet" signatures as committee debates who should receive driver-license voter records

Summary

County recorders and election officials urged the committee to require the Motor Vehicle Division to transmit handwritten (wet) signatures to county recorders (not only electronic signatures forwarded via the Secretary of State). Stakeholders agreed to further stakeholder work; the committee did not finalize the striker and left technical fixes for the floor.

The committee considered Senate Bill 16-34 and a strike-everything amendment that would update how driver-license voter-registration signatures are routed. County recorders, represented by Megan Kittner of the Arizona Association of Counties, told the committee that current practice forwards digital signatures and that recorders prefer handwritten "wet" signatures as exemplars used in signature-verification procedures.

Senator Kavanaugh, the bill sponsor, and members discussed the statutory text, current MVD practice, and whether the Secretary of State or county recorders should receive the wet signature copies first or simultaneously. Technical and technology constraints were discussed: recorders and MVD staff acknowledged that receiving both an electronic record and a wet-signature file may require system reprogramming and stakeholder negotiation.

Representative Collin pressed for a statutory guarantee that recorders receive wet signatures directly; members indicated they wanted a stakeholder process to finalize the operational details and a possible floor amendment to make the transmission explicit. The committee did not adopt a final striker in committee and planned further stakeholder work before floor action.