ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Phoenix, Arizona
victims’
rights; notification; reporting requirement
(NOW: voting systems upgrade fund; appropriation)
Requires county election officers to use marksense optical scan voting systems and establishes the voting systems upgrade (VSU) fund, to be administered by the Secretary of State, to assist county officers in purchasing or leasing such systems. Establishes procedures for the Secretary of State to respond to voting equipment failure. Appropriates $3.4 million, non-lapsing, in FY 2001-2002 from the state general fund to the VSU fund to assist county elections officers in obtaining marksense voting systems.
The Secretary of State is statutorily required to appoint a three person committee to investigate and test various types of elections equipment, specifically vote tabulating machines or devices. Following submission of the committee’s recommendations, the Secretary of State must make final adoption of the types of election equipment used. This legislation in part establishes requirements and a process for addressing the failure of elections equipment and allows the Secretary of State to revoke the approval for voting equipment that fails to perform properly.
According to the Federal Elections Commission (FEC), marksense optical scan voting systems employ a ballot card on which candidates and issue choices are preprinted next to an empty rectangle, circle or oval or an incomplete arrow. After a voter indicates their choices, a tabulating device reads the votes using “dark mark logic,” whereby the computer selects the darkest mark within a given set as the correct choice or vote. Marksense technology has existed for decades, has been used extensively in standardized testing and statewide lotteries and was used by 24.6 percent of registered voters in the United States for the 1996 Presidential election.
This legislation appropriates $3.4 million in FY 2001-2002 from the state general fund to the VSU fund to assist in obtaining marksense voting systems for county election officers.
1. Establishes the VSU fund to be administered by the Secretary of State and funded by monies appropriated by the Legislature.
2. Requires the Secretary of State to expend VSU fund monies to assist county elections officers in purchasing or leasing marksense systems, including training, for counties that use punch card systems.
3. Allows the Secretary of State to expend monies and services necessary to receive federal monies for acquiring marksense optical scan systems. Requires the Secretary of State to reimburse the state general fund to the extent that federal monies are received for the acquisition of marksense systems.
4. Requires all county officers in charge of elections to use only marksense optical scan systems for state and federal elections. Defines marksense optical scan systems.
5. Stipulates that state laws that conflict with marksense optical scan system laws do not apply to elections in which such systems are used.
6. Clarifies that Secretary of State’s voting equipment committee must test and investigate hardware, software and upgrades of vote tabulating machines.
7. Requires all vote recording or tabulating machines offered to the Secretary of State for adoption to meet or exceed the minimum requirements of the FEC voting system standards and to be tested for FEC requirements and approved by an independent testing laboratory selected by the Secretary of State.
8. Allows the Secretary of State to revoke approval of voting equipment that does not meet FEC standards.
9. Requires the Secretary of State to appoint a voting equipment committee to investigate the failure of voting equipment to perform as required, to provide an opportunity for the equipment vendor to be heard and report to the Secretary of State.
10. Appropriates $3.4 million, non-lapsing, in FY 2001-2002 from the state general fund to the voting systems upgrade fund to assist county elections officers in obtaining marksense voting systems.
11. Provides for a general effective date.
JUD 2/27/01 DPA/SE 10-0-0-0
APPROP 3/06/01 DPA/SE 14-1-1-0-0
3rd Read 3/13/01 53-1-6-0
Prepared by Senate Staff
March 29, 2001