Arizona Republicans push new laws to limit mail voting
Republican lawmakers in Arizona have introduced at least 22 restrictive bills, according to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law. More than half the proposals address mail voting, with one particularly contentious bill seeking to kick infrequent voters off something called the Permanent Early Voting List, or PEVL. Arizona voters have been voting by mail for 30 years, while the GOP-led Legislature created the PEVL, which sends voters who have opted in ballots in the mail automatically, in 2007.
"We are seeing this as a full on assault on voting rights and democratic institutions in Arizona," Emily Kirkland, executive director of the advocacy group Progress Arizona, said, arguing that the same state lawmakers advancing voting restrictions had spread Trump's lie of a stolen election. "This is part of a pattern."
Progress Arizona is one of several lobbying against the legislation, using everything from billboards to T-shirts to mobilize against bills it argues would make it harder for voters, and particularly voters of color, to register to vote and cast ballots by mail.
While Republicans control all three branches of state government, it's unclear if these bills can make it past Gov. Doug Ducey, who has defended the state's mail voting system in the past. Democrats, as well as leading civil and voting rights advocates have protested the laws as voter suppression. One of the proposed bills, which has since died in committee, would have let legislators ignore the election results and override the certification of presidential electors. Last week, state Rep. John Kavanagh, a Republican, told CNN that the party was concerned with the "quality" of the voters.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/arizona-republicans-push-new-laws-to-limit-mail-voting/ar-BB1eMjX1?li=BB141NW3
