Grand Canyon Times

In May, Arizona's Republican Gov. Doug Ducey signed controversial legislation that he said would uphold the integrity of elections, protect Arizona voters and simplify the voting process.

Under Senate Bill 1485, the state's list of early voters that automatically receive early ballots will be updated to remove voters who have not returned an early ballot within the previous four years and don't respond to a final notice asking if they still want to receive an early ballot.

“Arizona is a national leader when it comes to election integrity and access to the ballot box, and Senate Bill 1485 continues that legacy,” Ducey wrote in a letter. “In 1992, our state began offering the ability for Arizonans to vote an absentee ballot. Since then, Arizona has continuously improved and refined our election laws ⁠— including intuitively renaming ‘absentee’ voting to ‘early’ voting ⁠— and constantly seeking to strengthen the security and integrity of our elections.” 

Critics of the bill say that it is part of an ongoing attempt at voter suppression and that it disproportionately affects voters from rural areas, disabled voters, seniors, voters of color and Native American voters residing on tribal lands, NBC News reported. Democrats estimate that nearly 150,000 voters will be removed from the lists for early ballots.

“When our democracy was challenged, Arizona's election officials and the people of our state courageously protected it,” Arizona's Democratic Secretary of State Katie Hobbs was reported as saying by NBC News. “We should be able to expect the same level of courage from their governor. I am disappointed that he signed this bill into law.”

According to Russell Berman's op-ed published in The Atlantic, accusations of voter suppression by Democrats are questionable in view of heavily restrictive voting policies of the mostly Democratic states in the Northeast, which prevent nearly all early voting, including President Joe Biden's home state of Delaware.  

Delaware has a population of fewer than 1 million, while Arizona has nearly 7.3 million people.

Delaware is among the many states in the Northeast that limit the time in which opponents can rally a base through policies that prevent most early voting. 

“Democrats who have won election after election in states such as New York, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island have had little incentive to change the rules that helped them win,” Berman wrote, adding that Delaware has some of the most restrictive voting policies in the country. Delaware will not permit early voting at all until the 2022 election cycle, according to Berman, and current state law requires that voters provide a valid reason if they wish to vote absentee, such as being ill or disabled.

By contrast, Arizona allows for no-excuse absentee voting and sends out absentee ballots 27 days before election day, according to Vote 411.

According to the the Honest Elections Project poll, 66% of voters support increasing protections on absentee voting, including a voter-ID requirement to vote absentee, reported Election Transparency Initiative. Polls also report that 77% of voters, including 92% of Republicans, 75% of independents and 63% of Democrats support mandatory voter ID for in-person voting. The poll found 64% of black voters, 77% of Hispanics and 76% of low-income voters disagree with the idea that presenting a form of ID at the ballot-box is a “burden.”

Poll data shows that 64% of voters, including black (51%) and Hispanic (66%) voters, as well as urban (59%) and independent (61%) voters, want to increase voting safeguards that mitigate fraud, not decrease them.