Grand Canyon Times

In May, Arizona 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, voters currently on the list to automatically receive early ballots will be removed from the list if they have not returned an early ballot within the previous four years and also fail to respond to a final notice asking if they still want to receive early ballots.

“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 support of the bill. “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.” 

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

Accusations of voter suppression by Democrats is questionable in view of heavily restrictive voting policies of the mostly Democratic states in the Northeast, which prevent nearly all early voting, according to Russel Berman's op-ed published in The Atlantic.

Many Northeastern states 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.

For example, the New York Governor’s Office reports that the state of New York’s election laws were modified in 2019 to allow eight days of early voting, synchronize federal and state elections, and allow pre-registration for minors. Up until 2019, New York also required that voters provide a valid reason if they wish to vote absentee, such as being ill or disabled. Several other Democratic-controlled states, including President Joe Biden's home state of Delaware, still require voters to provide a valid reason to vote absentee.

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

Delaware's population, however, is less than 1 million while Arizona has more than 7 million residents.

The security of New York's voting process is also questionable, critics say. It is one of 16 states (along with the District of Columbia) that do not require voter identification at the polls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Other states include Maine, Oregon, California, Nevada, Wyoming, Minnesota, Illinois, Nebraska, New Mexico, Vermont, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, New Jersey, North Carolina and Maryland.

All these states voted for Biden in the 2020 election, except for Nebraska, North Carolina and Wyoming.

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.