More than 228,000 Arizonans who voted in the November election by delivering a mail-in ballot to the polls might have to change their voting habits next time.

State Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, R-Scottsdale, has proposed a bill to ban voters from dropping off mail-in ballots because she says it delays statewide election results and causes counties to waste money on postage.

Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill Thursday, and it now faces a vote in the full chamber.

Senate Bill 1046 would prohibit county elections officials from counting mail-in ballots that are returned in-person, rather than via the U.S. Postal Service.

Voters on the Permanent Early Voting List would have two options to vote: return their ballots by mail, or cast a ballot in person at an early voting location or at the polls on Election Day.

Democrats, some Republicans, and voter-advocacy groups have blasted SB 1046, saying it needlessly would make voting less convenient for many people.

They also warn it could lead to longer lines at the polls, where more people would inevitably vote in-person.

Opponents filled a hearing room Thursday when the bill was debated by the Judiciary Committee. The GOP-dominated panel voted 4-3, along partisan lines, to advance the bill.

One protester carried a sign criticizing the bill's sponsor. it declared, "Michelle Ugenti-Rita: Stop attacking our democracy!"

Ugenti-Rita said she introduced SB 1046 because mail-in ballots delivered to the polls take much longer to count because elections officials must individually verify signatures on the envelopes.

Ballots cast in-person at the polls are counted more quickly because voters must already provide proof of their identity to vote.

Sponsor: Drop-off ballots are 'clogging up' system, raising doubts

Ugenti-Rita said long delays in tabulating last year's election results were troubling because they caused some voters to have apprehensions and doubts about the results themselves.

"What’s happening is it’s clogging up the system," Ugenti-Rita told The Arizona Republic. "That’s not healthy. Nobody wants that."

In the November election, voters who returned their mail-in ballots at the polls favored Democrats. As their ballots were counted, Democrats, like U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, overtook Republican opponents who led on Election Day.

On Thursday, Ugenti-Rita faced push-back from elections officials and Democrats, who argued the change would confuse thousands of voters who've grown accustomed to dropping off early ballots.

Ugenti-Rita said she simply wants to "get back" to the original concept of voting by mail, which assumes people who get a mail-in ballot intend to mail it.

"This is not voter suppression," she said. “Honestly, this enhances and protects the integrity of our elections."

The majority of Arizona voters, about 80 percent, receive a ballot in their mailbox.

Most send their early ballots back in pre-stamped envelopes.

But many thousands still drop their ballots off in person. Some like the experience of going to the polls, where they can get an "I voted" sticker. Others forget to mail their ballots before Election Day.

Opponents of the bill, who spoke at Thursday's hearing, said SB 1046 will take that choice away without preventing delayed election results.

Rivko Knox, a volunteer with the League of Women Voters of Arizona, told lawmakers the bill "is a solution in search of a problem that does not exist." She added that closer races, not mail-in ballots, delayed results last November.

Others who testified against the bill, including Yavapai County Recorder Leslie Hoffman, said voters should have more options, not less.

Hoffman, a Republican, told lawmakers that many voters choose to hold onto their mail-in ballots until Election Day so they can have more time to think about their choices and hear from candidates.

She said some voters also fear that the postal service could lose their ballot.

"Please don't take that away from me, my county, my taxpayers," Hoffman said of the option to deliver mail-in ballots.

Republicans dropped off most ballots in November

According to the Arizona Secretary of State's Office, more Republicans dropped off mail-in ballots at the polls on Election Day in 2018 than any other group.

Of the roughly 228,000 who delivered ballots to the polls, about 84,000 were Republicans; 78,000 were Democrats; and 66,000 were independents or members of another party.

The state doesn't have numbers showing how many additional voters took mail-in ballots to an early voting location prior to Election Day.

SB 1064 now faces a vote in the full Senate after a standard rules review. If it passes there, it could face an uphill battle in the closely-divided Arizona House, where Republicans hold a two-seat majority.

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