Arizona GOP push to standardize state election dates

Republican state lawmakers are making yet another try to tell Tucson — and all the state’s charter cities — when to hold their elections.

On a party-line vote on Feb. 20, the Senate Committee on Judiciary and Elections approved a measure to require all cities, towns and school districts to hold elections on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November, and only in even-numbered years.

SCR 1027, which now awaits a vote of the full Senate, is not the first effort by GOP lawmakers to override local election timelines. In fact, several attempts have already been slapped down by the Arizona Supreme Court.

In the most recent ruling in 2021, Justice Ann Scott Timmer, writing for the majority, said the Arizona Constitution clearly gives cities that have adopted their own charters “autonomy over matters of purely municipal concern,” ultimately concluding that cities have the legal authority to run local elections.



https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2026/02/24/arizona-gop-push-to-standardize-state-election-dates/