A rare loss for voter ID cements ugly 2022 for election deniers

[RandySF]

As testing grounds for election denialism go, you’d struggle to find better than Arizona in 2022. Despite its recent drift into swing-state status, Arizona’s Republican Party was taken over by extreme elements and nominated election deniers for every statewide office. And its defeated gubernatorial candidate, Kari Lake, looks like she might be the one big-name Republican to go whole-hog on baselessly claiming her election was stolen.

The verdict on the state GOP’s descent into denialism was already pretty clear, thanks to the losses of Lake and others like Senate nominee Blake Masters and secretary of state candidate Mark Finchem.

But don’t sleep on the latest result out of the state: voters’ highly unusual rejection of a voter ID ballot measure. Proposition 309 trails by less than one percentage point, but the Associated Press projected Wednesday night that it has been defeated.

Despite state Republicans’ focus on “election integrity,” it appears to be the first time in a decade that voters — in any state — have rejected stricter voter ID.

Arizona already has voter ID. But the ballot measure sought to force everyone voting in person to use photo identification, whereas the law currently allows those without photo ID to provide two alternate documents, such as a utility bill. For mail voters, the measure would have required them to record their birth dates and either voter identification numbers, driver’s license or identification card numbers, or a partial Social Security number. Currently, voters only need to sign and date.


https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/17/arizona-voter-id-ballot-measure/

[UTUSN]

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