Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a commonsense bill to speed election results under faulty premises. Arizona lawmakers must keep pressing for a solution.

As an elections director, I take pride in defending our liberty by delivering secure, accurate elections and ensuring the voting rights of every legal citizen are protected.

But it was not lost on me how frustrated many people in Arizona were with the time needed to tabulate and report election results accurately. Our current process has created a never-ending source of material for comedians, prognosticators and critics.

It was widely agreed that the state Legislature held the governmental authority to, as my grandmother would say, “fix this mess.”

So, I was heartened to be asked by Senate President Warren Petersen to weigh in efforts to reform the existing laws in a way that would enable a more efficient and timely tabulation and reporting process, without challenging the ability of citizens to vote or threaten election security.

Senate bill addressed those late early ballots

In developing the language for Senate Bill 1011 , every recorder and elections director in the state was consulted for their perspective. Sen. Petersen and Rep. Alexander Kolodin sought to understand the process and asked inquisitive questions.

They accepted responses that challenged their assumptions of what would and wouldn’t work, and they made necessary adjustments to the original bill.

The final language continued to give mail-in voters weeks to return their ballot, while fixing a major cause of the delays in tabulation and reporting — the “late early” ballot, where mail-in ballots are dropped off on Election Day rather than mailed in as intended.

These ballots trigger the days-long verification and tabulation process currently required by law, contributing to the delays in timely reporting.

The trade-off for Arizona voters was reasonable

The solution came with a trade-off — 7 p.m. on the Friday before Election Day would become the deadline for dropping off mail-in ballots.

But voters who did not get their mail-in ballot returned before that cut-off would retain the ability to vote in person for the next four days, as part of the newly extended early voting.

So, no one lost the ability to vote. And, in fact, in-person early voting was made easier and more accessible.

The Arizona State Legislature did its job and “fixed this mess.”

Yet, Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed SB 1011 on faulty premises, without asking the majority of county recorders and election directors for our perspective.

Hobbs vetoed the bill under faulty premises

Using schools for polling places will not interfere with education, as Hobbs suggested in her veto letter . Public schools have historically been used as polling places, and as taxpayer funded buildings, they are a sensible solution to the growing need for precinct-based polling locations.

The bill also requires voters who benefit from the Active Early Voting List to confirm their address, with as much as a two-year window in which to do so. This is hardly doing away with the list, as the governor claimed.

And it hardly makes voting more difficult.

Voters who choose a mail-in ballot have 27 days to return the ballot they automatically received in the mail. Under SB 1011, if they fail to do so, they still have four days to vote in person — one more than the current law allows.

This hardly seems like a government-imposed hardship.

The governor issued a politically motivated veto to protect the status quo, threatening to stall election results once again. I thank lawmakers for their efforts and encourage them to keep pushing for a solution.

Dana Lewis, a Republican, is the Pinal County recorder. She is a certified election official in Arizona and holds a certificate in election and registration administration from the Election Center through Auburn University. Reach her at .