Arizona Senate committee members voted Thursday to advance two election reform bills which would prohibit the use of drop boxes and add a precinct tally requirement prior to county tallying.

Arizona Senate Bill 1058, reference title “drive-up voting; prohibition,” amends a portion of the Arizona Revised Statutes relating to elections and electors. The new section, 16-567, would be inserted into the statute to prohibit the use of drive-up voting and drop boxes. The prohibition would apply to all forms of drop-box voting, except those within polling precincts or permitted by election officials for people with disabilities.

The other bill, Arizona Senate Bill 1343, is referred to as “early ballots; provisionals; precinct tallies.” Similar to Senate Bill 1058, this bill proposes amendments to two sections of the Arizona Revised Statutes relating to elections and electors. The two sections that would be affected are Section 16-552 and Section 16-621.

The first section, 16-552, pertains to early ballots, processing and ballot challenges. The section would be amended to include a new tallying requirement at the precinct level. As a result, precinct election officials would be required to separate early ballots from all other ballots. Early ballots would then be tabulated and kept as separate vote totals at the voting precinct.

The second section, 16-621, pertains to proceedings at the counting center. Similar to the amendment described above, section 16-621 would also be amended to ensure early ballots are tabulated and kept separate from other vote totals at the voting precinct.

Following the 2020 general election, Arizona faced a series of election audits and challenges which cost Arizona taxpayers an estimated $2.4 million, according to a Brennan Center for Justice report. Thursday’s Senate committee vote is the most recent effort by Arizona legislators to advance restrictive voting measures.