Arizona ‘Good Elections’ explores voter priorities
March 24
The Center for the Future of Arizona partnered with former Maricopa County Supervisor Bill Gates on a new project observing what Arizonans think dictates a “good” election. The survey highlighted the fundamentals, as well as special topics, speed of reporting results, mail-in voting, and more.
This is the Center for the Future of Arizona’s first-ever single-issue public opinion survey research study.
Dr. Sybil Francis, who leads the center, is focused on the survey research, while Mr. Gates is leading a series of discussions around the state to share the findings.
Dr. Sybil Francis, Chair, President & CEO of the Center for the Future of Arizona, and Bill Gates, Executive Director of the ASU Mechanics of Democracy Laboratory, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss more.
“The good elections project is really trying to step back from all the political and heated debate around elections,” Dr. Francis said, “…we like to ask Arizonans what they think about important issues, and that’s really fundamentally what this is about.”
According to Bill Gates, many Arizonans described a “good” election as one that includes accuracy, transparency, and convenience in elections.
“Those, I think, are three very important items, and certainly, that’s what we saw in the data,” Gates said.
Dr. Francis was pleased to find the high levels of trust between voters and the local and state officials.
“We’ve seen it across the nation, we have leaders who continue to question elections,” Gates explained, “…when we continue to prove that elections are safe and secure, it is a bit puzzling…frustrating for our election officials to still see the lack of trust among some…the findings clearly showed that a strong majority of Arizonans trust elections, and in particular trust local election workers.”
The study highlighted that roughly 81% of Arizonans want to continue to be able to vote by mail, and on top of that, about 81% of Arizona voters vote by mail.
“We know that there’s been quite a lot of discussion around…speed versus convenience,” Dr. Francis said, “…seven out of 10 Arizonans would prefer to keep the option of dropping off their ballot…so they’re really prioritizing convenience over speed.”
