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ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Seventh Legislature, Second Regular Session
appropriations; end-point monitoring; elections
Purpose
Appropriates $100,000 from the state General Fund (state GF) in FY 2027 to the State Treasurer to reimburse the counties for end-point monitoring of elections and nefarious signal interception.
Background
After consultation with each county board of supervisors or other officer in charge of elections, the Secretary of State (SOS) must prescribe rules to achieve and maintain the maximum degree of correctness, impartiality, uniformity and efficiency on the procedures for early voting and voting, as well as ballot production, distribution, collection, counting, tabulation and storage. The rules must be prescribed in an official elections instructions and procedures manual (EPM) that is approved by the Governor and the Attorney General, and that is issued by December 31 of each odd-numbered year that immediately precedes the general election (A.R.S. § 16-452).
All components of an electronic voting system, including any e-pollbooks uploaded with voter registration information or connected to a voter registration system must be secured according to the requirements outlined in the EPM. The EPM recommends that counties conduct periodic election security and cybersecurity assessments and develop security procedures and best practices in consultation with county, federal and state information technology and security professionals. Counties may establish more stringent security protocols as long as the county adheres to the minimum-security requirements prescribed by the EPM (EPM Ch. 4 (II)).
Components of the electronic voting system must: 1) be password-protected, for the voting system software; 2) not be connected to the internet, any wireless communications device or any external network, except as prescribed for e-pollbooks; 3) not be used to transmit election results through analog, cellular or any other similar transmission; 4) not contain remote access software or any capability to allow remote access to the system; 5) match the software or firmware hash code on file with the officer in charge of elections prior to programming the election and hash code on file, as prescribed; and 6) be observed by the officer in charge of elections or the election officer's designee if the election program, software or firmware is updated or modified. Any port, plug, door or other method of physical or electronic access to the voting machines must be secured to prevent any unauthorized access and the county recorder or other officer in charge of elections must document and verify security procedures relating to access to the voting machines before the voting machine is placed into service for an election (EPM Ch. 4 (II)(A) and (II)(B)).
S.B. 1654 appropriates $100,000 from the state GF in FY 2027 to the State Treasurer to reimburse the counties as outlined.
Provisions
1. Appropriates $100,000 from the state GF in FY 2027 to the State Treasurer to reimburse the counties for end-point monitoring of elections and nefarious signal interception.
2. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
February 9, 2026
ZD/KS/ci