Arizona has been at the center of conspiracies after President Donald Trump lost to Joe Biden, the former president, in 2020. Since then, the state has been a hotbed of conspiracies regarding unfounded claims of voter fraud bolstered by Trump and other top GOP leaders, including some running for Arizona’s top offices.
Despite those claims, Arizona has a rigorous process to ensure the security of its elections. Here’s a look at how.
Protecting the vote
Paper-ballots, considered the “gold standard” for election security, are used in Arizona to ensure there is a paper trail of votes cast to ensure continuity and an auditable record of votes cast across the state.
Arizonans overwhelmingly vote by mail, with about 80% of the state returning their ballots through the mailbox. Although state Republicans originally encouraged it, top GOP leaders have moved to make mail-in voting harder for Arizonans, pointing to unfounded claims of voter fraud.
The data, however, tells a different story—vote by mail is considered a “significant benefit” to voters, with fraud accounting for only 0.000043% of total mail ballots cast across the US.
To protect the vote, counties utilize tamper evident envelopes for mail-in ballots, designed to reflect any indication of tampering through secure packaging.
Mail-in ballots must also be signature verified, with the signature provided compared against the one on file from voter registration. To verify the authenticity of ballots cast, every mail-in ballot is authenticated through a “rigorous” signature verification process conducted by trained election staff. If a signature has a discrepancy, staff will alert the voter and give them the opportunity to cure their ballot.
For Arizonans worried about their ballot being received, the secretary of state’s office provides a free service that allows voters to track their ballot, including to receive alerts for when it has been accepted. NOTE: Maricopa and Pima counties utilize different systems to track ballots.
For voters who drop off their ballots, the secretary of state’s office holds ballot drop off locations and drop boxes to strict standards, including being placed in a secure location such as inside or in front of a federal or tribal government building, within the view of a monitoring employee, and secured in a way to prevent potential tampering. All drop boxes must be equipped with an opening slot large enough to accept a deposited ballot, but not large enough for a ballot to be removed through the slot, according to the state’s election procedures manual.
To prevent misconduct, Arizona imposes severe penalties for ballot tampering, vote buying, or discarding someone else’s ballot. According to state law, ballot tampering is a class 5 felony, which can come with between 6 months and 2.5 years prison time for first time offenders.
For in-person voting, Arizonans must provide a form of identification, including either a government-issued ID or two other forms of identification that can be found on this list.
Protecting the database
Arizona elections are conducted independently by each of the 15 counties and overseen by the secretary of state. Each election system is designed to meet that county’s specific needs, meaning each system is unique, decentralized, and most importantly, “cannot be compromised by a single point of access.”
To prevent potential breaches of the state’s voter registration database, the secretary of state’s office only allows authorized state and county election officials access to the Arizona Voter Information Database, and all authorized users must log in using multi-factor authentication for additional security measures.
According to the secretary of state, Arizona’s voter database is hosted on secured servers that are monitored—day and night—to prevent potential attacks or unauthorized access attempts.
In order to secure county election systems and facilities, all equipment used must be certified by both the US Election Assistance Commission and the secretary of state’s Equipment Certification Advisory Committee to make sure that it meets both federal and state requirements. Arizona’s election systems, computerized systems that count votes, are never connected to other networks, such as the internet or office networks, to maintain integrity.
Come Election Day, Arizonans from different political parties and organizations can observe the vote-counting process to ensure safety standards are met. After Election Day, state officials must recheck county results until officials come to a consensus that the final results are accurate.
Despite Trump’s claims of “massive voter fraud” throughout the years Arizona has safe elections, with only 14 convictions of voter fraud since 2020, all of whom were charged, according to the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
