Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signs law to purge voters from permanent early voting list

[Judi Lynn]

Source: ABC News

28 mins ago

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 2020 election.

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 as auditors are at work inspecting Maricopa County's 2.1 million 2020 ballots under a Senate-ordered audit.

Arizona joins other Republican-led states that have introduced, passed and signed into law restrictive voting legislation. There are 361 bills in 47 states that introduce 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.

Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/arizona-gov-doug-ducey-signs-law-to-purge-voters-from-permanent-early-voting-list/ar-BB1gCGO4?li=BBnb7Kz

[Sherman A1]

1. Time to order my Arizona tourism brochures

Have them mailed to me (at their cost) and tossed straight into the recycle bin. It’s not much but what I can do right now.

[OldBaldy1701E]

2. So, he has dropped another Ducey? (n/t)

[gab13by13]

3. Does anyone ever investigate when states do this?

What % of people dropped are Democrats and what % are Republicans?

[Botany]

4. This is unConstitutional.

n/t

[BumRushDaShow]

5. As a sidenote here in PA - when they passed what is called "Act 77"

https://www.governor.pa.gov/newsroom/governor-wolf-signs-election-reform-bill-including-new-mail-in-voting/

that allowed "no excuse absentee" (mail-in) voting, the stipulation being that if we wanted to "vote by mail", then around the beginning of each calendar year, we would need to request to do that. And if an optional box was also checked off on that no-excuse absentee ballot application, then voting that way would automatically be applicable for any other election for that year (including special elections and the general election), and mail ballots would also automatically be sent out for those subsequent elections that particular year.

They dubbed the list of those interested in this type of voting as "permanent", but in reality, it only means that it is a "mailing list" and each year, the county will send out a notification to voters on the list that invites them to "apply" for such a ballot, and will do so each year. And if that application is not completed, then no ballot will be sent that year and the person would need to vote "in person".

https://www.votespa.com/Voting-in-PA/Pages/Annual-Mail-in-Voter-List.aspx

And in the case if someone decided to go on and vote "in person" after having received a mail-in ballot, then they need to bring it with them to the polling place and have it "spoiled" (removed from the system as valid and destroyed).

In this specific case, IMHO, it behooves that we get people into the habit OF voting. There are far too many (particularly Democrats in urban areas) who feel they only need to either vote once every 4 years or maybe twice in a 4 year period (particularly if there is a gubernatorial or mayoral, etc., election that might garner a little more interest).

Every single year, there is some election. EVERY YEAR. We continually get fucked at the state & county levels because of this lack of turnout and interest in down-ballot races that happen in "boring off-year elections".

[Deminpenn]

6. Nailed it that Dem voters need to have the "I'm voting"

mindset every year, not just when the election is "important".

BTW, how is the DA primary in Phila going?

[BumRushDaShow]

7. Seems the DA primary is a mud-slinging fest

with the FOP-backed Vega vs the "progressive"-backed Krasner. Vega has been very nasty and aggressive. I must have gotten a dozen mailers from his campaign as they are going "all out" on this. `IMHO although one might want a D.A. to be assertive in terms of building a good case and being persistent, Vega seems to want to keep doing the same thing over and over and focusing on conviction "stats", which basically entailed railroading innocent individuals, leading to a number of convictions eventually being overturned due to proof of coercion and other falsified evidence and information, resulting in the city spending millions in settlements.

The Philly Inquirer has been doing a multi-part series on it. Part 1 was here -

Losing conviction

Philly’s murder exonerations raise questions about decades of homicide investigations — and whether the misconduct alleged in those cases was part of a pattern that led to many more wrongful convictions.

by Samantha Melamed
Published May 7, 2021

(snip)

According to Crawley, who first made those claims in a civil lawsuit, Detective Angela Gaines kept her for hours and would not let her leave or speak to her mother. “Sit there and think about what could happen to your daughter,” she said the detective threatened. Gaines did not respond to requests for comment. Finally, exhausted and scared, worried for her 2-month-old daughter, Crawley relented. She went with detectives into a room with a video camera, to read aloud and sign what she said was a fabricated statement, that her brother had drawn his gun first. “She pushed me to say it,” Crawley said. “They treated me like I did it.”

The city settled with the family for $210,000 — though lawyers for the city, answering the Crawleys’ lawsuit, denied that detectives threatened the young woman, detained her against her will, fabricated statements, or covered up any misconduct.

Yet, Crawley’s claims are hardly unusual. She is one of at least 15 people over the last 30 years who have said in testimony, court filings, and complaints to police that Philadelphia homicide detectives threatened to take away their children if they did not provide a satisfactory statement. She is one of at least 62, many of them vulnerable due to youth, addiction, illiteracy, or disability, who have reported being held in isolation for hours, cut off from a parent or lawyer, in what was known around the criminal courthouse as “homicide hotel.” (At least two of those people were hospitalized, according to lawsuits, after being deprived of medications for diabetes and high blood pressure while at the unit.) And she’s among 81 who have said detectives fabricated statements or supplied false information.

Those are some of the claims revealed in a new Inquirer database that for the first time aims to compile such allegations into a single resource. It is based on court documents, public records, interviews, and other reporting. The Inquirer database includes 49 allegations of physical abuse, 64 of threats, and 28 of manipulation or destruction of evidence.

More: https://www.inquirer.com/crime/a/philadelphia-murder-exonerations-wrongful-convictions-20210507.html

Part 2 was published today (focusing on one particular cop who has racked up the coercive testimonies resulting in 7 convictions (so far) that were later overturned) -

Dozens accused a detective of fabrication and abuse. Many cases he built remain intact.

The Philly DA has stipulated to coercion by Detective James Pitts, who helped build seven murder cases that were dismissed, acquitted, or overturned. He remains in the Philadelphia Police Department.

by Samantha Melamed
Published 6 hours ago

(snip)

Seven murder cases Pitts helped build have fallen apart either before, during, or after trial — a pattern The Inquirer first began covering in 2013. At least six people who have named Pitts in lawsuits against the city have settled for a total of $1 million. According to court records, he has also been the subject of at least 11 citizen complaints and five internal investigations, and was twice accused of intimate-partner violence, once involving a woman who was a murder witness. During a 2011 trial, a witness also alleged that Pitts hit her inside the Stout Center for Criminal Justice after she’d finished testifying the night before; court proceedings on that allegation were conducted under seal. Pitts denied all of these allegations.

Just this month, a man was exonerated of murder a decade after he first claimed Pitts and his partner, Ohmarr Jenkins, coerced his confession during a long and violent interrogation.

Yet, dozens of convictions fraught with similar allegations about Pitts remain intact. An Internal Affairs probe that’s at least two years old has not yielded any public action. The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office has noted concerns, but has not committed to a full review of Pitts’ cases. As of 2019, Pitts was reassigned to the Delaware Valley Information Center, a counterterrorism hub, but he remains employed by the Philadelphia Police Department. A department spokesperson declined to comment.

In an interview, Pitts attributed the allegations to personal vendettas, the anti-police agenda of the DA’s Office, and the respective desperate desires of defendants to evade justice and of witnesses to avoid snitching. He added that he’s never had a finding against him by the Police Board of Inquiry, which makes disciplinary findings on sustained Internal Affairs complaints.

More: https://www.inquirer.com/news/philadephia-homicide-detective-james-pitts-losing-conviction-exonerations-murder-20210513.html

It's going to take a long time to fix a chronically broken system and try to deal with protecting witnesses who are afraid to come forward. As long as the "wrong people" are captured and run through the system for "statistics" purposes, the crimes have and will continue to occur because the ones who should have been arrested, are still out in the streets committing crime.

I think part of what happened is that over many decades, time and money was spent to clear out the "old" mafia crime syndicates and those have now been replaced with more "agile" crime syndicates, which are adept at using social media to facilitate their activities. Many of the mafia work involved federal investigations and IMHO, that needs to start happening here because I expect some of it (like drugs/gun-running) is happening interstate, and would fit with a federal response).

[Deminpenn]

8. PBS' Independent Lens is doing a multi-part series on

Krasner called "Philly DA". It seems the cameras have been rolling since the campaign in the style Independent Lens does with commentary only supplementing or adding details not captured on film.

I know Vega is one of the asst DAs Krasner replaced when he took over. And you are correct that it will take years to undo the prosecution mindset of DAs like Specter and Abraham.

[BumRushDaShow]

9. Who would have been a perfect DA is Josh Shapiro

but obviously he's got bigger (state-wide) fish to fry and has done a great job at that AG position.

Krasner in his position is sortof "experimental" because there really is no road-map for changing the investigative and prosecutorial culture in a large urban area... but apparently there is a strong demand from many quarters to do so.

I think the last time there was some effort to do more "community policing" was in the '90s under Clinton when they established the "bike cops", partly to get the cops (who had generally stopped the practice of "walking the beat" and merely drove around a neighborhood), out of their cars, and back on the streets. I.e., they could actually be "closer to the community", with more face-to-face interactions and getting to know "the regulars" in a patrol area, but also have the capability to be nimble enough to apprehend a young criminal escaping a crime scene on foot, who could dart into places no police vehicle could reach (but where a bike could provide better access and speed). But it seems they had pulled many of them out of the neighborhoods and focused them downtown.

[Karma13612]

10. I'm not clear:

So, does this mean you are no longer eligible to vote early, ever again????? Or does it mean you have to re-establish (register, whatever) with the board of elections so you CAN vote early in the next election??

Just so I can debate honestly about it with others in different social media forums.

Thank you.