The Arizona Senate today will pass, and Governor Hobbs will sign, a law to permanently move up the state primary election date by two weeks.
The 2026 primary election date will move from Aug. 4 to July 21.
According to AZ state Senator Analise Ortiz, who represents the 24th district, a state Senate committee approved the measure on February 4, 2026, and the full Senate will approve it as an emergency measure today.
The bipartisan legislation will also give voters more time to fix signature problems on early ballots and codify where party observers may watch election activity.
Governor Katie Hobbs has agreed to sign the bipartisan measure. The law will take effect on Friday, February 6.
Challenges for candidates
Moving up the primary will eliminate two weeks of time for candidates to collect enough signatures to appear on the ballot. ►Voters should immediately support Democratic candidates by visiting Apps.azsos.gov/equal and click, “Sign A Candidate Nominating Petition.” ◄
The Arizona House voted unanimously on Monday, February 2, to pass the legislation, which would move the primary from the first Tuesday in August to the second-to-last Tuesday in July. That would ensure election officials can meet federally mandated deadlines to send general election ballots to military and overseas voters, even if a statewide recount delays finalizing the primary results.
According to VoteBeat, Arizona, this is the second time in recent years that lawmakers have sought to adjust the state’s election timeline on short notice. Arizona faced similar timing challenges in 2024, and after months of fraught negotiations, the state moved that year’s primary election ahead by a week. It also made a number of smaller, temporary changes, such as compressing the period for voters to fix missing and mismatched signatures on early ballots, a process known as ballot curing.
The current measure required similar behind-the-scenes dealmaking to gain bipartisan support. Both chambers of the Arizona Legislature are controlled by Republicans, but a two-thirds vote is required to ensure that legislation will take effect immediately if passed. Without this emergency authorization, the law wouldn’t take effect until 90 days after the legislative session ends, which would likely be after the primary has already taken place.
Under the law passed in 2024, voters have five calendar days to cure early ballots. The legislation would change that to five business days starting in 2027. Because Arizona generally holds elections on Tuesdays, the curing deadline shifts from the Sunday after the election to the Tuesday after the election.
That change won over voting access advocates. Alex Gulotta, state director for All Voting is Local, told Votebeat that the amendment represented a “significant victory for voters by making sure that the votes of all eligible voters are counted.” His organization had previously opposed the legislation.
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