Student Voting Guide | Arizona
Registration
http://www.azsos.gov/election/ (registration form available online)
https://servicearizona.com/webapp/evoter/ (online registration)
Your registration[1] form must be received or postmarked by 29 days before the election.[2] You can also register online in Arizona by the same deadline if you have an Arizona driver’s license.
Arizona requires you to prove your citizenship before you can register to vote.[3] This may be hard for students who do not have an Arizona driver’s license, and you may want to make sure you have a way to prove citizenship well before the registration deadline. In order to prove your citizenship when you register, you must provide either: (1) a valid Arizona driver’s license number on your application; (2) a photocopy of a U.S. birth certificate; (3) a photocopy of a U.S. passport; (4) a valid certificate of naturalization number; or (5) a Bureau of Indian Affairs card number, Tribal Treaty card number or Tribal Enrollment number.[4] If you register by mail or through a voter registration drive, you will have to enclose one of these with your registration form.[5] If you register in person at the County Recorder’s office, you can also show original naturalization documents.[6] You may register to vote if you will be 18 by the next general election.[7]
Residency
The Arizona elections code defines residence as “actual physical presence” plus the “intent to remain.”[8] While the statute defining residency doesn’t require an indefinite intent to remain, the most recent court case concerning residency for voting defined the necessary intent as one “to remain here indefinitely.”[9] That case, however, involved unique facts.[10]
At Home. You should not have any trouble establishing residency at home if you attend school elsewhere. A temporary absence will not result in a loss of residence if you intend to return.[11]
At School. Both the Office of the Secretary of State and the County Recorder of Pima County, where the main campus of the University of Arizona is located, have said that students do not need to have an intent to remain after their schooling to register in their college communities.[12] Thus, the best reading of the law is that students who intend to remain in Arizona while they attend school and who treat their home in Arizona as their residence are entitled to register and vote as Arizona residents.
Once you have completed a voter registration form, you are presumed to have validly registered; as long as your form is complete, county officials are obligated to register you to vote.[13]
Challenges to Residency. Once you are registered, you are presumed to have voting residency; if someone challenges your eligibility to vote, it is up to them to prove through clear and convincing evidence that you are not a resident.[14] Arizona allows any qualified voter in the county, including challengers appointed by political parties, to challenge your eligibility at the polls.[15] If your eligibility is challenged at the polls, you must sign an “affidavit of registration” swearing that you are a resident and a legally registered voter.[16] You may also have to swear to answer any questions regarding your residence truthfully, and then answer those questions before the election board. You will be allowed to vote a regular ballot unless the election board finds that the challenger has proven by clear and convincing evidence that you are not a resident.[17] If the board finds the challenge legitimate, you are still entitled to vote by provisional ballot.[18]
Effect on Driver’s Licenses. There is no rule that driver’s license residency and voting residency must be the same. Arizona residents are required to get driver’s licenses and re-register their cars immediately upon entering the state. However, out-of-state students taking seven or more semester hours are specifically exempted from the definition of “resident” in the motor vehicle code.[19] Out-of-state students are defined as those who either pay out-of-state tuition at a public university or those who attend a private university but would not be eligible for in-state tuition if they attended a public school.[20]
Identification
NOTE: Many voter identification laws have recently been introduced across the country. Please reference Voter ID Legislation in the States for information about identification requirements that your state may have enacted since this guide's 2010 update.
Arizona law requires every voter to show proof of identity at the polls. Specifically, you must show either one form of ID with your name, registration address, and photo, or two different forms of ID that both have your name and address.[21] The ID must be valid, meaning that you cannot tell it is expired by looking at its face.[22] Your student ID will only count as a valid voter ID if it has your voting address on it.[23]
The Secretary of State has said that an Arizona drivers’ license, a tribal identification card or other government-issued photo ID are valid forms of the photo identification.[24] Current utility bills (including cellular phone and cable television bills) count as forms of non-photo ID, as do bank statements, car insurance cards and voter registration cards.[25] Online printouts of these bills are fine. Student housing bills will not count as voter identification.[26] To be accepted as valid ID, all bills must be dated within ninety days of the election.[27] If you cannot show ID at the polls you can vote by provisional ballot, but then you must show ID at the County Recorder’s office within five business days after a general federal election or three days after any other election, or else your ballot will not be counted.[28]
Absentee Voting
Arizona has no-fault absentee voting, which means you do not need a reason to vote an absentee ballot.[29] You can mail a request for an absentee ballot to your County Recorder, and some counties allow you to request an absentee ballot online.[30] Your request must be received by the County Recorder by 5 p.m. on the eleventh day before the election. [31]
Your absentee ballot must be received by the County Recorder or delivered to any polling place in the county by 7 p.m. on Election Day.[32] If you are a first-time voter who registered by mail, when you receive your blank ballot, you may also receive a request to send additional documentation with your ballot if the state was unable to verify your registration.[33]
Early Voting
As a convenience to voters, Arizona has early voting which begins 30 days before Election Day.[34] At early voting sites, you can vote any precinct’s ballot for that county. If you do not consider your school address to be your permanent address, or if you have not changed your residence yet, then early voting provides an opportunity to vote a ballot at the residence from which you are absent. You should contact your local elections official to find out your designated early voting sites and hours.
Last updated in April 2010
[1] The Arizona Secretary of State’s office declined to review this guide, and encourages voters to refer to the Arizona Revised Statutes and the Voter Registration Form instructions for information about the state’s voter registration procedures.
[2] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-134(C).
[3] In August 2010, The Department of Justice approved Georgia’s controversial law that requires proof of citizenship to register in that state as well. See “Justice Department Approves Georgia Voter Verification System, ” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, available at http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/justice-department-approves-georgia-597868.html.
[4] Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 16-166(F); see also Arizona Office of the Secretary of State, “How to Register to Vote in Arizona,” available at http://www.azsos.gov/election/How_To_Register.htm.
[5] Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 16-166(F) (West 2010).
[6] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-166(F)(4).
[7] Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 16-101(A)(2) (West 2010).
[8] Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 16-101(B) (West 2010).
[9] McDowell Mt. Ranch Land Coalition v. Vizcaino, 945 P.2d 312, 315 (Ariz. 1997).
[10] In that case, temporary workers came into the state and had not found permanent housing, moved their possessions, ordered services in their names, or changed their addresses. The Court explained that “[o]utward indicia, like a month-to-month lease, failure to order telephone service, failure to have the utility service transferred to one's own name, or failure to file a change of address with the post office, may rebut a personal declaration of intent to remain.” Id. at 314. Ultimately, the Court found that there was “no objective evidence” that the workers intended to stay in Arizona. Id. at 315 (emphasis added).
[11] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-101(B).
[12] Interview with Arizona Secretary of State’s Office (April 16, 2008).
[13] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-121.01.
[14] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-121.01(A) (West 2010).
[15] Ariz. Rev. Stat. §§ 16-590,16-591.
[16] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-592(A).
[17] Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 16-592(B) (West 2010).
[18] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-592(C).
[19] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 28-2001(A)(2)(b).
[20] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 28-2001(A)(2)(b)(i)–(ii) (West 2010).
[21] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-579 (A)(1) (West 2010).
[22] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-579 (A)(1)(a), (b)
[23] See Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-579 (A)(1).
[24] Arizona Office of the Secretary of State, “Proof of Identification at the Polls,” available at http://www.azsos.gov/election/Prop_200/poll_identification.htm.
[25] Arizona Office of the Secretary of State, “Proof of Identification at the Polls,” available at http://www.azsos.gov/election/Prop_200/poll_identification.htm.
[26] Interview with Arizona Secretary of State’s Office (April 16, 2008).
[27] Arizona Office of the Secretary of State, “Proof of Identification at the Polls,” available at http://www.azsos.gov/election/Prop_200/poll_identification.htm; see also Arizona Secretary of State, Election Procedures Manual 128 (Oct. 2007), available at http://www.azsos.gov/election/Electronic%5FVoting%5FSystem/2007/Manual.pdf.
[28] Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 16-579 (A)(2) (West 2010).
[29] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-541(A).
[30] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-542(A).
[31] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-542(E).
[32] Ariz. Rev. Stat. Ann. § 16-548(A) (West 2010).
[33] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-542.
[34] Ariz. Rev. Stat. § 16-541.
