Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen has called on the Secretary of State to make immediate changes to the draft 2025 Elections Procedures Manual (EPM), warning that failure to do so could result in legal action by the Legislature.
“The Elections Procedures Manual cannot be used as a vehicle to rewrite Arizona law,” said President Petersen. “This draft is filled with provisions that go far beyond the Secretary of State’s legal authority, and if they are not corrected before submission, litigation will follow.”
The EPM guides how elections are conducted in every county in Arizona. By statute, it must match current laws and receive approval from both the Attorney General and Governor before implementation. Petersen argues that the current draft introduces rules that conflict with state law and reduce election safeguards.
Concerns raised by legislative review include allowing non-citizens more time to correct invalid registrations despite state law prohibiting this, ignoring identification requirements for voter registration forms, limiting challenges to questionable ballots, excusing petition circulator registrations that do not meet statutory standards, failing to enforce strong ballot chain-of-custody protocols and observation rights, reducing political party input on poll worker selection, requiring election officers to accept policies affecting their constitutional rights, and weakening contingency plans for equipment failures during voting.
President Petersen stated that the Secretary of State has repeatedly avoided following statutory requirements. “Our election laws are passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor – not invented by one officeholder,” said President Petersen. “If the Secretary of State wants rules changed, he should propose legislation like everyone else. Until then, we will insist that Arizona’s election manual follow the law as written.”
Petersen was elected as a Republican senator representing Arizona’s 14th Senate District in 2023, succeeding David Gowan.
For further information, contact Kim Quintero, Director of Communications for the Arizona State Senate Republican Caucus at kquintero@azleg.gov.
