He has vetoed 119 bills passed by the Republican-controlled Congress this year.

Hereford Republican Rep. Gail Griffin had proposed allowing the officials in charge of the election to count the votes instead of using automated counting machines. Hobbes said that was unacceptable.

“Hand ballot counting is arguably less accurate and slower than machine counting. Arizona voters deserve to know their votes are being counted accurately and efficiently. There is,” wrote Mr. Hobbs.

A veto is unlikely to end the legal battle.

In drafting the bill, Griffin argued that state law always allowed handcounts. She said her proposal simply “clarifies existing legislation.”

But Griffin acknowledged working with fellow Republican Cochise County Registrar David Stevens to create the standard. Cochise County called for a full manual count for the 2022 general election after two Republican overseers questioned the accuracy of machine counting and wanted to manually count all ballots.

It ended only when a judge blocked the move. The judge said state law allows election officials to take a random 2% sample of the entire ballot, count it by hand, and compare the results with a machine tally.

the problem is not resolved. Earlier this month, the Mojave County Board of Supervisors voted to consider hand-counting the 2024 election.

This was with the support of Republican State Senate Majority Leader Sonny Borrelli of Lake Havasu. He told supervisors that electronic tally machines are easy to hack.

Borelli called it a “national security issue” and argued that the state could not stop such hand counting.

That is not the position of Democratic Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. In a letter to the board, he said hand counting could increase the risk of error.

Fontes also said a full count would expose county officials to “significant legal risks, including potential criminal liability for violating state law.”

During a committee discussion on the issue, Senator Anna Hernandez said there are more fundamental reasons for voting against the bill. Phoenix Democrats said they could not support anything “promoted by those who promote conspiracy theories.”

Separately on Friday, Mr. Hobbes vetoed Rep. Justin Heap’s (R-Mesa) proposal to give parents access to all materials the district uses to train teachers.

Mr. Heep showed his colleague a list of subjects in the training sessions Mesa Unified School District teachers were required to attend. It included anti-racism, non-binary, unconscious bias, restorative justice and fairness.

All of these are issues where parental consent may not be obtained, Heap said.

Rep. Judy Schweebert (D-Phoenix) asked what’s wrong with teachers learning about issues such as equity.

Mr. Heap said he was happy to coach on equality issues. But equity, he said, is different and deals with issues of fairness rather than equality.

“Who decides what is fair and what is unfair?” Heap asked, saying fairness has to do with things like whether historically marginalized groups should get special treatment.

Heep also said the bill would be no different from existing laws that already give parents access to the curriculum used in the classroom.

In his veto message, Hobbes said his objections were more basic. Making these training materials available to the public, she said, would put the school at risk of violating copyright laws.

The governor also upheld Sen. Anthony Kahn (R, Glendale)’s proposal to ban government agencies from refusing to contract with private companies unless they have or have adopted policies of environmental, social and governance standards. also refused.

“I don’t think it’s in the best interest of Arizonas to tie the hands of the state’s procurement and investment professionals,” Hobbs wrote.

He also prohibits state treasurers whose investments include purchases of company stock from using the voting rights attached to those stocks to support proposals that advance social, environmental, political or other goals. It also vetoed a similar proposal to do so. Under the bill, states could not use investment funds in any way to boycott companies involved in fossil or nuclear energy.

“Politicizing the decisions made by state investment professionals could undermine the state’s long-term financial health,” Hobbs wrote.