Phoenix, AZ – Today, Governor Katie Hobbs and Secretary of State Adrian Fontes released the following statements calling for a fix to the election timeline issue caused by 2022 changes to Arizona’s election recount laws. In their statements, they reiterated the need for any fix to not harm voters and not contain unrelated changes to Arizona elections.

“Arizona voters are relying on us to do our jobs and protect their votes,” said Governor Katie Hobbs. “I have shown time and time again that I am willing to compromise, but I will not sign a bill that’s filled with harmful unrelated legislation or that hurts voters’ right to have their voice heard at the ballot box. I have been clear from day one: voters did not create this problem, and they should not be harmed to fix it. It is unacceptable that lawmakers are attempting to punish voters for a problem they created themselves. I have and will continue to put Arizona voters first, and I implore legislators standing in the way of compromise to do the same.”

“If there was ever a reason to be bipartisan, to be American, it would be to rally around the issue of empowering voters,” said Arizona Secretary of State Adrian Fontes. “Instead, we are dealing with this artificially manufactured crisis that makes it more difficult for Arizonans to vote.  We can’t resolve this problem on the backs of citizens when there are common sense solutions on the table that enable what we should all want: free, fair, and secure elections.”

Governor Hobbs and Secretary Fontes have made a number of concessions in negotiations with legislators, including not changing the recount law, and adjusting the curing period so long as we also offset harm to voters. However, legislators have refused to meet them halfway in negotiations. Instead, legislation was introduced that includes unrelated proposals and unduly burdens voters to fix a problem that they did not create.

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