亚利桑那州州长道格·杜西(Doug Ducey)周二签署了一项法案，将从该州永久提前投票名单(PEVL)中删除“永久”一词，这种方法在2020年被选民大量使用。选举。
他签署了有争议的法案SB 1485，不到一个小时后，亚利桑那州参议院按照政党路线以16比14通过了该法案。它还作为审计员在工作在参议院命令的审计下，检查马里科帕县2020年的210万张选票。
亚利桑那州加入其他共和党领导的州引入、通过并签署成为法律限制性投票立法。47个州有361项法案引入限制性条款。
新法取消了提及提前投票名单前的“永久”一词。县官员现在被要求在每一个偶数年的12月1日前向名单上的任何选民发送一份通知，这些选民在至少一次初选或大选中没有提前投票，而在四年多的时间里，市政、全州、立法或联邦选举都在投票中。
反对立法行动的亚利桑那州民主党国务卿凯蒂·霍布斯(Katie Hobbs)表示，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。
几位民主党人周二表示，受这项立法影响最大的选民是那些没有定期行使宪法权利的人。
“投票可能是我们最宝贵的公民权利，但它不是强制性的...该州参议员克里斯汀·恩格尔说:“这项法案似乎是为了惩罚那些不经常投票的人。“我们不需要这些人来让投票变得更加困难。”
“这将影响所有选民，而不仅仅是民主党人...这将影响独立人士。这将对共和党人产生影响，”州参议员、少数党领袖丽贝卡·里奥斯(Rebecca Rios)说。
民主党人表示，该法案将从提前投票名单中删除至少12.6万人，如果该措施适用于2020年选举的记录，这个数字会更高。
民主党众议员拉克尔·特兰(Raquel Terán)上个月表示:“选民人数可能高达14.5万人。”他引用了去年如果该法案生效，将会被取消的选民总数。
“这包括近30，000名拉丁美洲人。那些社区里有组织者...他们想确保他们在我们的民主进程中有发言权。而PEVL就是那种交通工具，”她补充道。
杜西在发给他的一段视频中为自己签署该法案的决定辩护推特周二下午，他说，尽管他对亚利桑那州的选举制度充满信心，但这并不意味着他不能采取措施使其更加强大。
“这一变化将确保积极的选民继续获得选票，并为县记录员腾出资源，用于选举安全和选民教育等优先事项。他说:“让我们明确一点，尽管一些党派活动家使用了各种欺骗性的激烈言辞来游说反对这项改革，但没有一个亚利桑那州的选民会失去投票权。”
共和党参议员凯利·汤森暂时否决了议案上个月底，由于担心选举审计结果可能会如何，她表示，她准备在周二对该法案投赞成票，因为她得到了保证，“我们现在正在考虑2022年选举需要解决的其他问题。”
“这是关于恢复每个人投票的信心，不管他们的政党是什么。汤森说:“因为我们对PEVL清单有问题，这引起了人们的注意和极大的怀疑，我认为我们研究它并提出解决方案来帮助清理这一问题是很重要的。”他没有详细说明PEVL有什么问题。
临时总统文斯·利奇为该法案辩护，认为压制选民的说法是毫无根据的，因为还有其他投票方式。
“在法案中明确规定的一系列事项发生后，该法案将取消非选民资格。他们选择不参加，或者被感动，或者死去。利奇说:“这并没有赶走选民。“我们一直听说这是选民压制。这些人还有很多其他投票方式。”
利奇的言论引发了州参议员胡安·门德斯的激烈评论，他在解释自己投票反对该法案时，按地区召集了他的同事。
“你们中的一些人，特别是来自第11区的立法者，需要明白，没有哪种选民更好或更有资格获得投票权。定期投票?说真的，你真的是想羞辱选民?”门德兹说。“我们是不是在检查如果隐蔽携带者每年找不到足够的子弹，他们是否还想要第二修正案的权利?...这项法案看起来只不过是剥夺你不喜欢的选民选举权的一个诡计。”
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。”
杜西在他的视频中回击了这些说法，说如果更新他们的系统以更有效地运行他们的业务是最好的，他们也会这样做。
“大公司已经决定介入关于选举法的辩论。我给他们的关于这条法律的建议很简单:在你说任何事情之前知道你在说什么。这些大企业似乎对选举持静态观点...并怀疑地查看任何更改。不对。“大错特错，”他说。
在接下来的几周内，还会有更多由共和党主导的法案出台。参议院已经通过了SB1713，该法案要求选民在缺席投票时返还额外的身份证明，如驾照、州身份证或部落身份证号码或联邦/州/地方政府发放的身份证副本。他们也可以使用自己的选民登记号和一份文件，其中包含他们的姓名和地址登记投票，如公用事业法案。它的最终形式还没有被众议院通过。
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signs law to purge voters from permanent early voting list
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed a bill Tuesday which will remove the word "permanent" from the state's permanent early voting list (PEVL), a method that was heavily used by voters in the 2020election.
He signed the controversial bill, SB 1485, less than an hour after the Arizona Senate passed it 16-14, along party lines. It also comes asauditors are at workinspecting Maricopa County's 2.1 million 2020 ballots under a Senate-ordered audit.
Arizonajoins other Republican-led statesthat have introduced, passed and signed into lawrestrictive voting legislation. There are 361 bills in 47 states thatintroduce restrictive provisions.
The new law dissolves the word "permanent" before references to the early voting list. County officials are now required to send a notice by Dec. 1 of every even-numbered year to any voters on the list who failed to vote using an early ballot in at least one primary or general election where a municipal, statewide, legislative or federal race was on the ballot over four years.
According to Democratic Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, who opposes the legislative action, 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.
Several Democrats said Tuesday that the voters who would be most negatively impacted by this legislation are the ones who do not exercise their constitutional right regularly.
"Voting is probably our most precious civil right, but it's not mandatory ... (this bill) seeks, as it seems, to punish those who do not regularly vote," said state Sen. Kristen Engel. "Those are not the folks we need to make it more difficult to vote."
"This will impact all voters, not just Democrats ... This is going to impact independents. This is going to impact Republicans," said state Sen. Rebecca Rios, the minority leader.
Democrats have said the bill will remove at least 126,000 people from the early voting list -- a number which would have been higher if the measure was applied for records based on the 2020 election.
"The number could be as high as 145,000 voters," Democratic Rep. Raquel Terán said last month, citing the overall number of voters who would have been removed if the bill was applied last year.
"And this includes close to 30,000 Latinos. There are organizers in those communities ... who want to make sure that they do have a voice in our democratic process. And the PEVL has been that vehicle," she added.
Ducey defended his decision to sign the bill in a video posted to hisTwitteraccount Tuesday afternoon, saying that although he has full confidence in Arizona's election system, that does not mean he can't take steps to make it stronger.
"This change will ensure active voters who continue to receive a ballot and free up resources for county recorders, to use on priorities like election security and voter education. Let's be clear, despite all the deceptive and heated rhetoric being used by some partisan activists to lobby against this reform, not a single Arizona voter will lose their right to vote," he said.
Republican Sen. Kelly Townsend, whotemporarily tanked the billlate last month over her concerns about how results of the election audit may turn out, said she was ready to vote yes on the bill Tuesday, because she had received assurances that "we are now looking at other issues that need to be fixed for the 2022 election."
"It's about restoring confidence for everyone to cast the ballot regardless of what their party is. Because we have issue with the PEVL list that has drawn attention and caused great doubt, I think it's important that we looked at it and came up with solutions to help clean that up," Townsend said, without elaborating on what the issues with PEVL were.
President Pro Tempore Vince Leach defended the bill and argued claims of voter suppression were baseless because there are other ways to vote.
"After a series of items happen that are specifically spelled out in the bill, this bill removes non-voters. They have elected not to participate or they're moved or they're dead. This is not removing voters," Leach said. "We hear all the time that this is voter suppression. These people have plenty of other means of voting."
Leach's comments sparked passionate remarks from state Sen. Juan Mendez, who called out his colleague by district when explaining his own vote against the bill.
"Some of you, especially the legislator from District 11, need to understand that there is no kind of voter that is better or more deserving of access to the right to vote. Voting regularly? Seriously, you're really trying to shame voters?" Mendez said. "Are we checking if concealed-carry people still want the Second Amendment rights if they don't find enough bullets every year? ... This bill looks like nothing more than a ruse to disenfranchise voters that you don't like."
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."
Ducey fired back at those claims in his video, saying if it was best to update their systems to run their businesses more efficiently, they would do the same.
"Large corporations have decided to insert themselves into the debate over election law. My advice to them regarding this law is simple: know what you're talking about before you say anything. These big businesses seem to embrace a static view of elections ... and view any change suspiciously. It's wrong. Dead wrong," he said.
There are additional pieces of Republican-led legislation which could be acted on in the coming weeks. The Senate has already passed SB1713, which would require voters to return additional identification with their absentee ballot, such as their driver's license, state ID or tribal ID card number or a copy of a federal/state/local government-issued ID. They could also use their voter registration number and a document that contains their name and address where registered to vote, like a utility bill. Its final form has not yet been passed by the House.
