一项旨在改变亚利桑那州早期投票名单工作方式的法案在共和党领导的州参议院被否决，该法案最初预计将在那里获得通过。

SB 1485，将从该州的早期投票名单中删除“永久”一词，如果人们在一定时间内没有使用它进行投票，最终将他们从名单中删除。

周四，共和党控制的参议院以14票对16票否决了该法案。

共和党参议员凯利·汤森投票反对这项立法，因为她说，她希望等待共和党授权对马里科帕县投票进行审计的结果，以确定是否需要采取进一步行动选举-相关事项是必要的。她说，在审计结束之前，她不会投票赞成任何与选举有关的法案。

“当我说我致力于解决亚利桑那州选举制度中的问题时，我是认真的，即使这意味着我的名字在这个委员会上是红色的，”她说。

考特尼·佩德罗萨/盖蒂图像，文件

2020年11月3日，亚利桑那州坦佩，选民们在跑马场等待投票。

该法案的发起人、参议员米歇尔·乌根蒂-丽塔(Michelle Ugenti-Rita)表示，汤森的反对票是“脾气暴躁”的一部分，因为她的选举相关法案最终没有在委员会中获得成功。

Ugenti-Rita说:“当有人声称再次关心选举诚信时，做出如此明显的转变当然令人失望，也许这只是一个游戏，只是为了展示。”“因此，现在投反对票的议员，两次都投了反对票，却从来没有在法案中谈及会引起关注的修正案或措辞。”

汤森说，她在幕后向成员表明了自己的立场。

汤森说:“我已经向党鞭和党团传达了一个信息，从现在起，我不会投票支持任何选举诚信法案，直到我们得到审计结果。”“我们有责任耐心等待。看看这次审计会产生什么，否则我们会无缘无故地这么做。”

“你们可以说这是发脾气——我对我所有的选举法案都被否决感到非常不安，我非常不安，”她补充道。“你想看发脾气吗?如果你真的想让我给你看，我可以给你看一个。”

罗斯·富兰克林/美联社档案

亚利桑那州州长道格·杜西在2020年12月2日凤凰城的新闻发布会上回答了一个问题。

尚不清楚共和党州长道格·杜西(Doug Ducey)是否会将投票名单立法签署成为法律。在11月大选后的几周内，杜西因拒绝考虑推翻选举结果的想法而受到前总统唐纳德·特朗普的抨击。他当时说，“我们亚利桑那州的选举做得很好。”

马里科帕县由共和党领导的审计是亚利桑那州参议院共和党人数月法庭行动的结果，他们最终能够利用参议院提供的传票权力获得该县的选票。审计的无党派观察员来自极右翼广播机构“一个美国新闻网”(One America News Network)，据《谈话要点备忘录》(Talking Points Memo)报道，审计的部分资金来自特朗普的盟友林·伍德(Lin Wood)，据称他为此提供了5万美元。

审计包括对该县210万张选票进行人工清点，这可能需要几个月的时间。该县已经对结果进行了两次不同的审计，没有发现任何违规行为。

亚利桑那州议员是2020年选举后全国范围内减少进入投票箱的努力的一部分，当时乔·拜登总统以超过10，000票的优势赢得了该州，亚利桑那州人选举了第二名民主党人进入美国参议院。这是近70年来两位民主党人第一次代表亚利桑那州进入美国参议院。

那里的共和党人提出了23项法案，这些法案将在某种程度上限制投票或改变选举方式。杜西最近签署了一项法案，禁止使用私人赠款来资助选举。

据亚利桑那州民主党国务卿凯蒂·霍布斯称，75%的亚利桑那州人是永久提前投票名单的成员，80%的亚利桑那州人在2020年选举中使用提前投票机制投票。

罗斯·富兰克林/美联社档案

亚利桑那州的国务卿凯蒂·霍布斯在向国会议员发表演讲时摘下了她的面罩

根据现行法律，任何亚利桑那州人都可以要求被列入该州的永久提前投票名单(PEVL)，以便收到邮寄选票。如果投票人要求删除，或者他们的状态变为不活动或取消，他们可以被删除。

如果选民不在两个连续的初选或一般市政、立法、全州和联邦选举周期中投票，该法案将寻求从名单中删除选民。

即使在周四该法案显然会失败后，共和党参议员桑尼·博雷利也表示支持该法案。

博雷利说:“如果你有一个没有参加投票的选民，并且没有在几个选举周期内投票——啊，对不起——但这实际上在财政上是合理的，因为你节省了你的县纳税人的钱，并且没有发送不需要发送的选票。”。“这是明智的立法。这里没有什么邪恶的。这是一项简单、明智、审慎的立法，也是非常公平的监管。”

民主党众议员拉克尔·特兰(Raquel Terán)周二晚上在辩论中表示，该州可能会从名单中删除近3万名拉丁裔选民。

“选民人数可能高达145，000人，”特兰在谈到2020年大选前通过的选民名单时表示。

凤凰城的商业领袖在4月初给亚利桑那州的立法者写了一封信，敦促他们投票否决SB 1485和其他使投票更加困难的法案，例如在缺席投票时需要新的进一步身份证明的法案。

他们写道:“这些提议是亚利桑那州和全国人民的共同努力，他们希望在选民心中播下对我们选举的更多疑虑，并助长过去几个月困扰我们政治话语的偏执。”“这些措施旨在剥夺选民的选举权。它们是寻找问题的“解决方案”。他们试图以改革的名义压制选民——简单明了。”

民主党人对这些担忧敲响了警钟。

众议员雅典娜·萨尔曼(Athena Salman)周二表示:“主要的体育运动正在从……侵犯投票自由的州退出。”随后，他指着将在亚利桑那州举行的2023年超级碗(Super Bowl)。

萨尔曼继续说:“不难想象，如果这项法案回到参议院，会有什么样的结果。”。“如果州长签署成为法律...我认为对亚利桑那州非常重要的潜在经济机会(将会丧失)。”

Bill to purge early voting list unexpectedly fails in GOP-controlled Arizona Senate

A bill designed to change how Arizona's early voting list works was voted down in the Republican-led state Senate where it was originally expected to pass.

SB 1485, would have dissolved the word "permanent" from references to the state's early voting list, ultimately removing people from the list if they did not use it to vote within a certain time period.

It failed in the Republican-controlled Senate Thursday on a vote of 14-16.

GOP Sen. Kelly Townsend voted against the legislation because she said she wants to wait for the results of a Republican-mandated audit of Maricopa County ballots in order to determine if additional action onelection-related matters is necessary. Until that audit finishes, she said she won't vote in favor of any election-related bills.

"I mean it when I say I am committed to fixing the problems in this election system in Arizona, even if it means my name is in red on this board," she said.

The bill's sponsor, Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, said Townsend's 'no' vote was part of a "temper tantrum," because her election-related bills were not the ones which ultimately ended up being successful in committees.

"It's certainly disappointing to take such a stark turn when someone purports again to care about election integrity, perhaps it's just a game and just for show," Ugenti-Rita said. "So the member who is voting 'no' now, voted for it twice on two occasions, has never once talked about an amendment or language in the bill that would be of a concern."

Townsend said that she made her position clear to members behind the scenes.

"I have communicated to the whip, to the caucus, that I am not going to be voting for any election integrity bills from this point forward, until after we have results that come from the audit," Townsend said. "It is incumbent upon us to be patient and to wait. And to look and see what this audit produces, otherwise we're doing it for no reason."

"And you guys can say it's a temper tantrum -- absolutely I'm upset about all of my election bills dead, absolutely I'm upset," she added. "You want to see a temper tantrum? I can show you one if you really wanted me to."

It was unclear if Republican Gov. Doug Ducey would have signed the voting list legislation into law. Ducey came under fire from former President Donald Trump in the weeks following the November election for his refusal to entertain the idea of overturning the election results. He said at the time that "we do elections well in Arizona."

The Republican-led audit in Maricopa County is the result of months of court action by Arizona Senate Republicans, who eventually were able to obtain the county's ballots using their Senate-provided subpoena power. The non-partisan observers of the audit are from One America News Network, a far-right broadcasting outfit, and the audit was reportedly funded in part by Trump ally Lin Wood, who allegedly gave $50,000 to the effort, according to Talking Points Memo.

The audit consists of a hand-count of all of the county's 2.1 million ballots, which will likely take months. The county has already done two different audits of the results and found no irregularities.

Arizona lawmakers are part of a nationwide effort to rollback access to the ballot box after the 2020 election, when President Joe Biden won the state by over 10,000 votes and Arizonans elected a second Democrat to the U.S. Senate. It's the first time in almost 70 years two Democrats represented Arizona in the U.S. Senate.

Republicans there have introduced 23 bills which would in some way restrict access to the ballot or alter the way elections are run. Ducey recently signed a bill which banned the use of private grant money to help fund putting on an election.

According to Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, 75% of Arizonans are members of the permanent early voting list and 80% of Arizonans used the early voting mechanism to cast ballots in the 2020 election.

Under current law, any Arizonan can ask to be added to the state's permanent early voting list (PEVL) in order to receive a mail ballot. If a voter requests to be removed or their status becomes inactive or canceled, they can be removed.

The bill would have sought to remove voters from the list if they do not use it to vote in two consecutive primary or general municipal, legislative, statewide and federal election cycles.

Even after it was clear the bill would fail on Thursday, Republican Sen. Sonny Borrelli voiced his support for it.

"If you have a voter that is disengaged and has not voted for several election cycles -- ah, excuse me -- but this is actually fiscally sound, because you're saving your county taxpayers money and not sending out ballots that don't need to be sent out," Borrelli said. "This is smart legislation. There's nothing nefarious here. It's a simple, smart, prudent legislation and very even-handed regulation."

Democratic Rep. Raquel Terán said in debate Tuesday night that it could potentially remove close to 30,000 of the state's Latino voters from the list.

"The number could be as high as 145,000 voters," Terán said of the overall number of voters who would have been removed from the list had it been passed before the 2020 election.

Business leaders in Phoenix penned a letter to Arizona lawmakers at the beginning of April, urging them to vote down SB 1485 and other bills which would make it harder to vote, such as one which would require new further identification when voting absentee.

"These proposals are a concerted effort from those in Arizona -and across the nation- who wish to sow additional doubts about our elections in the minds of voters, and feed into the paranoia that has plagued our political discourse over the past several months," they wrote. "These measures seek to disenfranchise voters. They are 'solutions' in search of a problem. They are attempts at voter suppression cloaked as reform - plain and simple."

Democrats sounded alarms over those concerns.

"Major sports are withdrawing from states that … infringe on the freedom to vote," Rep. Athena Salman said Tuesday, before pointing to the 2023 Super Bowl, which is set to be held in Arizona.

"It's not hard to imagine the outcome if this bill goes back to the Senate," Salman continued. "If the governor signs this into law ... potential economic opportunities that I think are very important to Arizona (will be lost)."