Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes intends to scrap a giant rulebook that tells county officials how elections must be conducted according to state law, a partial draft review reveals. .

While the draft is still incomplete, Fontes told Votebeat that he hopes the election procedure manual will only include rules county officials are legally obliged to follow, adding that he hopes the manual will not include any changes from his predecessor and current governor. He said he had shortened the rulebook significantly by removing the part called “opinion.” . Katie Hobbs.

Hobbes had previously refused to remove manuals in this way himself when he was secretary of state. As governor, she will eventually have to approve Mr. Fontes’ version to go into effect.

In response to Fontes’ description of parts of the current manual as “opinion,” Hobbes’ office said in a statement that the manual “has been drafted in close consultation with county officials and incorporates public feedback.” ” and has endured multiple legal challenges.

“This is an important part of enabling Arizona to conduct successful, safe and accurate elections in the 2020 and 2022 election cycles, even as election officials face unprecedented challenges. was,” the office wrote.

A partial first draft of the manual has not yet been released for public comment, but according to a Votebeat review of the 11 chapters produced so far, it will be dozens of pages shorter than the currently active 273-page version. Submitted to county for feedback. The remaining chapters will be sent to counties next month.

This will give local county election officials more freedom to decide how to enforce some of the state laws. County registrars will no longer be told how to accurately compare voter signatures when deciding which mail-in ballots to accept, for example. Election administrators will no longer be reminded that some people in prison can still vote, and they will also be given guidelines on how best to ensure they do so. And so far, the manual has no instructions on how to authenticate voting equipment or process candidate nominations.

Fontes said 11 of the 15 counties will have new election administrators and record keepers, so he wants the manual to be as “efficient and easy to use” as possible. That will make it completely clear what election officials are required to do under state law, he said, adding that he plans to publish additional guidance and best practices separately.

“Then they won’t have to reconsider whether this article has the force and effect of law or is just an opinion,” Fontes said.

Fontes is still receiving feedback from counties and is revising the draft, which will be released for public review in August.

State law requires the office of the secretary of state to send the manual to the governor and attorney general by October, who must approve it by the end of the year, with revisions completed by then.

This process was fraught with many difficulties recent years Because of infighting between political parties. And even though all of the top state officials involved are now Democrats, it’s not going to go smoothly. Hobbes and Fontes have to work out their different philosophies about what should be included in the manual.

In 2021, during the review process, former Republican Attorney General Mark Brnovic said: asked Hobbes to make the same kind of cut In the manual Fontes is currently working on.Quoted by Brnovic Recent State Supreme Court Decisions, McKenna vs SotoAs a result, it was found that the provision of state law that gives the secretary of state rulemaking powers through the manual was not enforceable because it did not address the topic of candidate nominations. Perhaps this ruling will set the stage for other topics in the manual not specifically mentioned in that section of state law to be challenged in court.

Hobbes did not edit the manual as requested by Brnović, 2021 version did not go into effect. Fontes, on the other hand, cut many of Brnovic’s demands.

It is unclear whether or how Mr. Hobbes will protest Fontes’ changes. Hobbes spokeswoman Sophia Solis said the governor’s office offered to discuss anything with Fontes when he wrote the first draft, but said it would not provide edits until the secretary formally submitted them in October. .

“We look forward to working with them further on EPM this fall,” Solis said.

County officials have provided mostly supportive feedback so far, but voter advocacy groups, which have begun reviewing draft chapters as a coalition, are concerned about some of the cuts.

Alex Grotta, Arizona director of All Voting is Local, said the advocates’ coalition “removes important guidance for counties that have protected thousands of voters in every election. I’m worried,’ he said.

Fontes changes “shall” to “may”

The manual specifically describes how election officials must meet the requirements of state election laws. Often this means adding rules on top of rules.

For example, state law requires registrars to refer to voter records when determining whether signatures on vote-by-mail ballot envelopes are valid. The current manual instructs record keepers to check not only the original signatures on voter registration forms, but also signatures on other documents such as early voting forms and signature lists.

Fontes’ draft deleted that language.

Fontes said the starting point for her draft was the 2014 manual, not Hobbes’ 2019 version or her 2021 draft. Because she felt that most of the updates were guidelines, not laws.

Fontes was Maricopa County’s registrar from 2016 to 2020, so she tells the story from the perspective of a county employee who had to follow the manual before and after Hobbes’ move.

Bearing in mind the recent Supreme Court ruling, Mr. Fontes argues that the law goes beyond rule-making powers and does not actually have the force of law, unnecessarily repeats rules already in state law, or violates state law. Removed sections and lines that we thought could be considered. State Law. Fontes also cut an entire chapter on candidate nominations and added his 10-page section on voting equipment certification. Some other chapters are shortened by a third of his.

Tom Collins, executive director of the Arizona Citizens Clean Election Commission, said he understands Fontes’ approach.rear mckennaHe said it makes sense for the manual to be able to point to specific sections of election law that operate under its authority, while also providing uniformity in how counties conduct elections.

In many areas, Mr. Fontes changed instructions from “must” to “may” or “must” to “must”, previously requiring county officials to follow. Essentially deleted the existing rule. Voting advocates believe this will weaken access to votes across the state and reduce uniformity.

For example, the requirement that the county registrar “must establish” local early voting at the county registrar’s office during early voting is now stated as “may establish.” And Fontes’ draft says election officials “can” consider redrawing precincts to reduce the likelihood of excessive wait times, and currently “must.” “isn’t it.

Voter advocacy groups have told Mr. Hobbs to use the 2019 manual to explain to election officials that voters in pretrial detention or serving a misdemeanor sentence remain eligible to vote, ensuring that these voters are eligible to vote. to outline how they would be able to exercise their rights. This section has also been deleted from Fontes’ current draft.

“If those parts are challenged in court, I don’t know how effectively I can defend them,” Fontes said.

Noting that Arizona’s 15 counties vary widely in size, resources, equipment and capabilities, Fontes said he believes changes to the manual will help those counties. Pima County Registrar Gabriela Cazares-Kelly said that while she and others were initially concerned about Fontes’ approach, she now sees it could give the county the flexibility it needs. said that

He said he has “great expectations” for Fontes to be able to provide additional guidance to the county apart from the manual.

Fontes adds to protect against future challenges

There are a few areas where Fontes has added his own rules. This includes responding to intimidation of election officials and voters that occurred statewide in 2022 and could recur in 2024.

For example, then Group stake out ballot drop box,take voter photo And in response, Fontes added a section on intimidation of voters and poll workers. According to the draft, intimidation could include taking pictures or videos of voters and even following them to their cars.

“We are in different spaces, and you can’t ignore that,” Fontes said. “I want voters to have access without intimidation.”

This and other changes are likely to draw backlash from Republican activists and lawyers.

In 2021, Brnovic asked Hobbs to remove the entire section on voter intimidation, saying it was outside the scope of the manual.

Jen Wright, who served as assistant attorney general under the Brnovic administration and reviewed some of Fontes’ proposed changes, said the manual would enforce criminal law on election officials and create definitions of voter intimidation that aren’t in the law. It was not designed to There are constitutional problems with the new rules.

“EPM cannot enact new criminal laws that are expected to be enforced by law enforcement and polling workers,” she said.

In another change, Mr. Fontes adds the broad stipulation that any election in Arizona must provide the opportunity for unchallenged early voting by mail and in person. This follows an unsuccessful state Republican lawsuit that argued that mail-in ballots were illegal. But Wright said nothing about the law requiring early voting in person in all elections.

Fontes may choose to specify in a future chapter that electronic devices must be used to tally ballots, which currently counts ballots by hand in several counties. are being studied and discussed statewide.

Ballot drop-boxes have grown in popularity, and he has included a provision requiring ballot drop-boxes to be located where voters with disabilities can access them.

Fontes also said that when mailing out vote-by-mail ballots, county officials must instruct voters how to clarify who they intend to vote on the ballot in case they make a mistake on the ballot. Adds a requirement that .

Maricopa County Election Commissioner Ray Valenzuela said, according to initial feedback the county provided to Fontes’ office, this opinion contradicts recent court rulings involving Fontes when he was the registrar. I think it is possible. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Fontes, as county registrar, did not have the authority to issue such instructions.

In drafting the manual, Mr. Fontes considered what could legally be included rather than what he believed should be included, and tried to stay true to what the law would allow. said he tried.

“You have to be aware of not only what you want to see there, but what the outcome will be two, three, four steps down the road,” Fontes said.

Collins said that with the rise in election lawsuits, it makes sense to read the statute in text on the manual’s mandate.

“It is foreseeable that someone will sue every page of the book,” he said.