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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fifth Legislature, First Regular Session
voter registration databases; death records
Purpose
Requires the Secretary of State to establish a nonpublic database for use by county recorders to cancel the names of deceased persons from county voter registration databases.
Background
The Arizona Department of Health Services (DHS) must transmit each month to the Secretary of State record of the death of every resident of the state reported to DHS within the preceding month. The Secretary of State must use the record for the sole purpose of canceling the names of deceased persons from the statewide voter registration database. Additionally, DHS must annually provide to the Secretary of State, from the statewide electronic death registration system, a record of all deaths of residents of Arizona that are reported to DHS. The Secretary of State may compare the records of deaths with the statewide voter registration database. The name of each deceased person must promptly be canceled from the statewide voter registration database and the Secretary of State must notify the appropriate county recorder and the recorder must cancel the name of the person from the register. A county recorder must cancel a registration when the county recorder knows of the death of the person registered (A.R.S. § 16-165).
The State Registrar of Vital Records (State Registrar) must transmit each month to the county recorder a record of the death of each resident of the county recorder's county who is at least 16 years of age (A.R.S. § 36-302).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires the Secretary of State to use monthly death records provided by DHS to establish a nonpublic database for use by county recorders to cancel the names of deceased persons from county voter registration databases.
2. Allows county recorders to compare the records of deaths with the county voter registration database.
3. Requires the State Registrar to transmit monthly death records of each resident of the county who is at least 16 years of age to the Secretary of State, in addition to a county recorder.
4. Requires the State Registrar to annually transmit an end of year compilation of the death records to the Secretary of State and the county recorder.
5. Makes technical changes.
6. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
February 11, 2021
MH/ML/gs