State Sen. Steve Farley: “You’re taking away one of the tools of being able to speak truth to power.” Credit: Jim Nintzel

You’ll now be committing a crime if you drop off your neighbor’s early ballot at the polling place in this year’s elections.

Gov. Doug Ducey yesterday signed HB 2013, which makes it a felony for a person to turn in a ballot other than their own, with some exceptions for family members or roommates.

Republicans claim they are restoring integrity to election process by preventing “ballot harvesting”—but there’s no evidence that anyone was tampering with any of the ballots that were being collected and turned over to election officials.

State Sen. Steve Farley (D-Tucson) said the legislation was aimed at suppressing the vote among Latinos and other groups who often fail to turn out on Election Day.

“By taking away the practice of going door to door and collecting the ballots of people who might not otherwise be bringing in them in themselves—particularly in disempowered communities where we have been successful in being able to do that—you’re taking away on of the tools of being able to speak truth to power,” Farley said.

The entire controversy over the collection of early ballots is relatively recent.

Way back in the early ’90s, state lawmakers loosened up the early ballot rules. Before the changes, you had to present some kind of valid reason to get a so-called “absentee ballot”—you’d be out of town on Election Day or you were to infirm to make it to the polls or some similar situation. But the changes more than two decades ago allowed anyone to request an early ballot.

In the years since, the use of early ballots has skyrocketed. In 1996, about one in four voters in Pima County cast early ballots. By 2014, that number had grown to more than three out of four.

The increase in the use of early ballots over the decades has been mostly driven by sophisticated candidates and political parties, who have encouraged voters to cast early ballots as a way of developing a connection with voters and tracking their voting behaviors. The reason is simple: If they can get supporters to cast their vote early, then they know they have that supporter locked in.

But it’s also far more convenient for voters, who can review long ballots with multiple races and complex propositions at their own leisure in their living room rather than have to make quick decision while standing at a ballot box.

Both political parties, as well as many individual candidates from both sides of the aisle, have participated in ballot harvesting by collecting early ballots and turning them over to election officials.

But in recent years, Latino groups have started collecting early ballots—and given that Latinos are far more likely to vote for Democrats than Republicans, GOP lawmakers have moved to shut them down.

The first effort was in 2014, when lawmakers passed a massive election-law revamp that made it crime to collect early ballots, but also put new hurdles in the path of third-party candidates and initiative campaigns. That legislation was filled elements that upset so many different interest groups that a massive referendum effort succeeded in putting the changes on the ballot for voter approval. Rather than face the voters, GOP lawmakers instead repealed the entire package and have been passing elements of it in a piecemeal fashion.

This week, GOP lawmakers finally managed to pass legislation making it felony to collect early ballots. Supporters of the law say that it will prevent any funny business from happening with ballots that are collected by political organizers, but they have yet to be able to point to any verifiable fraudulent activity.

Farley said he was “outraged” that Ducey signed the bill and “then said that it’s another step toward protecting all our electoral process.”

“It’s another step in his Big Lie theory of governance, which is you do one thing and then you say you’re doing precisely the opposite thing,” Farley said.

This article appears in Mar 10-16, 2016.

Getting hassled by The Man Mild-mannered reporter

18 replies on “Republican Lawmakers Make It a Felony for Get-Out-The-Vote Groups To Assist Voters”

  2. Ducey is the epitome of deceit. He puts out press releases on issues he was against and is forced to be for, like the JTED funding issue. Anything he says is reform is the opposite, it is usually someone against the Goldwater Institute, and Goldwater always wins with their bought and paid for clone. The voting issue is among the worst. As a society we should be doing everything to get EVERYONE to vote. With this bunch they only want those they can depend on to vote. Next Biggs and Ducey will want to nullify the ban on poll taxes and literacy tests, after all they are doing ad hoc poll taxes and numerous hurdles to vote. Brownback and Ducey, twin clones for ALEC. And the Koch Brothers.

  3. This is another of the long list of strategies and tactics used by the Republicans to marginalize and if possible eliminate minority voters that traditionally vote Democrate. The justifications and excuses for using these methods are varied and they attempt to make them sound reasonable and simple, but the truth is they are just as harmful and obvious as the not-so-old Jim Crow Laws, which clearly tell you the mindset of the Republicans.

  4. Chicago last night is the epitome of the new Democratic party. Thugs and criminals. Urban terrorists. They want their free stuff. It’s a lot like feeding a bear. Now they will hurt people to force their will.

    Shame on those in Chicago that don’t believe in free speech. Ultimately we will all lose it.

  5. ‘thugs’ and ‘urban terrorists’ . Glad to see you’re following the script by using approved code words rat, but i noticed you didn’t call it the ‘Democrat party’, so 50 points off for Slytherin I guess.
    And just a reminder that this article is about early voting in Arizona.

  6. Sorry Lefty but this article is about campaign and vote fraud. Why is the left so nervous? Do I get any points?

  8. Thank you for protecting the integrity of our elections.We have so many election games being played. We might as well be Nicaragua.

  9. The idea of political parties or 3rd party groups collecting ballots to turn in reminds me of the episode of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia where the guys buy a boat. It’s all about “the implication.” Nobody is forcing you to vote a certain way and there may not be any documented instances of voter fraud but there is an implication and that can be enough… Here is a link, enjoy!

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-yUafzOXHPE

  10. Why is it that in the last electon, the only people charged with election fraud were Republicans trying to prove there was election fraud by casting multiple ballots in Colorado?

  12. The Republicans, finding a solution where there is no problem. The only reason the Republican majority and their Liege have passed this legislation is to suppress votes that might benefit the opposing party. Case closed.

  15. In a study of more than ten years, 160 episodes of voter fraud were discovered nationwide, most by people ending up in the wrong precinct or moving without an address change. I believe Arizona had ONE case several years ago of a couple who were republicans voting in their home state and then coming to Arizona for the winter and voting again. In Oregon you are automatically registered to vote when you are given a driver’s license. In Arizona, when you register to vote you have to show a driver’s license. Not allowing a teacher to register students who come of age, or someone to take your ballot to the mailbox reflects why we are at 49th or 50th in education based on the insane laws being passed in Arizona, and another ALEC written bill to kill the vote for those who are cannot afford to miss work or are homebound, and there is no doubt that it disenfranchises the poor and elderly. I frankly wouldn’t trust someone else with my ballot but some people have no choice. Killing mail-in ballots is just another way to to further punish those who cannot make it to the polls. Illegals don’t vote because they don’t want to draw attention to themselves. Even registered Latinos only turn out at a rate of about 13 percent, which is disgraceful, but not much more so than the rest of the electorate. As Arizona falls lockstep with other red states into the trap of defunding Planned Parenthood, ultimately costing the state more welfare dollars, taking out radar cameras and giving life-long driver’s licenses, robbing the state of revenue sources for the state, it begins to catch up with us. Our education system is in crisis, property taxes rising, our tax dollars are going to corporate welfare and we continue to slip back into the 19th century. Now Ducey wants to sell the goose that lays the golden egg in the trust fund land, selling off the goose to band-aid an education gap caused by the state stealing education dollars. So NO on 123.

  17. It’s my observation that a whole lot of people have been encouraged to sign up for the permanent early voter list who are either just marginally interested in actually voting or are absent-minded or procrastinators. In either case their ballots may remain somewhere in the house unopened or unmarked until it is too late for them to arrive at the election office on time if they are mailed. Since their arrival or non-arrival is a matter of public record, the parties make final attempts to reach these potential voters and get them to mark and return their ballots. There is still another category of early ballot holder, the voter who really wants to vote in person but has been persuaded to sign up for the PEVL. In possession of an early ballot, she has never intended to mail it but fully expects to take it to her polling place. Some of these last-minute-louies will be unable to take their ballots to a polling place and party reps or concerned friends will collect and deposit ballots for them. And now this will be a felony. I’m betting this law will be challenged and stands a fair chance of being overturned.

  18. Sorry someguy but mine are not talking points. I had expected this type of problem since our President started it.

    “Mobster wisdom tells us never to bring a knife to a gun fight. But what does political wisdom say about bringing a gun to a knife fight?

    That’s exactly what Barack Obama said he would do to counter Republican attacks “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun,” Obama said at a Philadelphia fundraiser Friday night. “Because from what I understand folks in Philly like a good brawl. I’ve seen Eagles fans.”

    July 2008 WSJ

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