PHOENIX – Maricopa County will reduce its general election ballot from two sheets to one in November, potentially improving efficiency for Maricopa County elections officials but not necessarily making the ballot easier for voters with disabilities. 

Sey In, an attorney with Disability Rights Arizona who works on voting rights, said in a statement the effect depends on each voter’s individual needs, the ballot design and how the person votes.

“Generally, we can’t say whether a one-page ballot is more or less accessible than a two-page ballot,” In wrote in response to email questions.

Fewer statewide measures made the reduction to one page possible, though the average Maricopa County voter will still see more than 80 contests on the ballot, 57 of which are judges seeking to remain in office, the Maricopa County Elections office said.

Adrian Borunda, a communications officer for Maricopa County Elections, said moving from two sheets to one is “easier logistically” as the county will have half as many sheets to prepare, mail and tabulate.

The ballot in Maricopa County for the 2024 general election was two pages. In that election, Borunda said the county handled about 4.1 million ballot sheets.

When designing the ballot, he said the county considers readability and the number of contests a single sheet can hold. Arizona’s Election Procedures Manual says ballot text should be no smaller than 8-point type and must have enough spacing to be clearly understood.

Bill Gates, an Arizona State University professor who leads its Mechanics of Democracy Laboratory and served on the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors through 2024, stated the shorter ballot has clear administrative benefits, but whether it makes voting easier, particularly for those with disabilities, remains to be seen.

“You can make the ballot physically shorter without making the voting task easier,” Gates wrote in response to questions. “Cognitive burden comes from the number and complexity of decisions, the amount of information voters have to process and how easy it is to find and understand each contest.”

For Robert Murphy, a 19-year-old college student with autism, the one-sheet format is less important than its readability and his ability to vote by mail. He said polling places can be stressful and transportation is difficult because he does not yet have a driver’s license.

Murphy said the new format would not pose a personal problem “unless the font’s really small or hard to read.”

Under federal law, voting systems must give voters with disabilities the same opportunity for access, privacy and independence as other voters. Maricopa County says each vote center offers curbside voting and an accessible voting device.

Voters using the device make selections through a touch screen, audio or tactile controls. The machine then prints their selections for tabulation. The county also offers braille and large-print ballots.

County records show those services are used. During the 2022 general election, 1,503 voters used accessible devices in person and 27 braille ballots and 362 large-print ballots were distributed.

David Carey, who has limited hand movement because of a spinal cord injury from a gunshot wound, votes from home. Although one sheet means less paper to handle, Carey said the key issue for him is whether he can vote without relying on another person.

“The main goal should be privacy, independence and equal access,” said Carey, who is chairperson of the AZ Disability Advocacy Coalition.

Maricopa County has expanded its accessible voting options after a 2018 federal civil rights advisory report said long lines may have prevented some voters with disabilities from casting ballots during that year’s election.

The county adopted a vote-center model in 2020, expanding accessibility and allowing voters to use significantly more locations rather than relying on one assigned precinct.

While the one-page ballot will make things easier for the county, Gates warned election officials against trading fewer sheets for a more crowded design.

“The danger is solving the paper problem by creating a readability problem,” he stated.

Borunda maintained reducing the ballot from two sheets to one would not affect readability. He said the ballot-design team considered all voters, including those with disabilities.

Officials considered “everything from readability to how many contests we can get on the page,” Borunda said.

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.