Dan Desrochers of the Arizona-Sonora News Service delivers an update from this morning’s House Judiciary Committee meeting, where a bill to repeal last year’s election overhaul passed on a party line vote. (We’ve got more details about the bill in this week’s print edition.)
Things got heated in the House Judiciary Committee today.
The committee heard a bill to repeal HB 2305, an omnibus elections reform bill that would make it a crime for political operatives to collect and turn in early ballots, make it easier to remove voters from the permanent early-voter list, make it harder for third-party candidates to get on the ballot and create new barriers for getting an initiative on the ballot.
Rep. Farnsworth (R-12) started the meeting on the defensive, with an on the record claim that he will not try to reintroduce the bill in parts.
“I have no knowledge of any concerted effort to break this bill apart and start running them through,” Farnsworth said.
However, his statement was hardly a promise to let the bill die after it’s repealed.
“It doesn’t mean it won’t happen, doesn’t mean individuals won’t sponsor pieces, I still believe very firmly that there are pieces in here that have to be addressed.”
That was a major issue for people who came to talk in opposition to the bill. While they supported the reform in principle, they couldn’t trust that the legislature still wouldn’t try to pass the bill.
“While I do understand what your intent is, but you’re one vote,” said Sandy Bahr, the chapter director for the Sierra Club in Arizona.
The more people that questioned the intent of the legislature, the more defensive Farnsworth became.
“There is no nefarious intent that I’m aware of. There’s no concerted effort. There’s no scheming going on that I’m aware of, or that I’m a part of,” Farnsworth said.
Rep. Ethan Orr (R-9) was on the fence about the repeal when the bill was postponed last week so that Farnsworth could adjust the language. In order for Orr to vote yes, he spent the week getting assurances that the bill would not be reintroduced.
“My concern has always been what comes afterwards,” Orr said, “What I told my leadership is, frankly, if we say we’re abiding by the will of the voters and then a week later do the exact opposite, then we’re lying to the voters.”
The bill passed along party lines with 4-2, with two representatives absent.
This article appears in Jan 30 – Feb 5, 2014.
Yeah Eddie, and we all know what paragons of ethical behavior Arizona Republicans are.
And the Dems are trying to OUST Ethan Orr, one of the only 9 Republicans who is thinking up there about good policy for Southern Arizona first, party second! The local Democrats officials should do the same! Us independent, well informed voters see through both parties games.
After 2013’s eleventh hour passage of HB 2305 how likely is it that the majority party will this year just let it die through the repeal called for by HB 1296? Is that why Rep. Farnsworth has introduced and pushed this bill, to say that we made a mistake a year ago and want to undo our error? Or is it to save the state the cost of putting HB 2305 on the ballot so the people — get that, THE PEOPLE — might decide whether they like the legislative majority’s efforts to improve our electoral processes? Or does Farnsworth have colleagues lined up to introduce bits and pieces of HB 2305? And if they should pass, will opponents roll over and say this is the will of the people, infallibly interpreted by our legislative majority? I’m polishing up my clipboard for an anticipated re-run of the petition campaign to get whatever voter suppression bills may be enacted this year submitted to the people. Or is what Farnsworth and company are trying to do going to be challenged — perhaps successfully — in court for depriving the people of the right to pass on HB 2305? We’ll see. Meanwhile, our Representative Orr has committed himself to fighting any attempt to bring elements of HB 2305 to life piecemeal, hasn’t he?
After what the GOP in Arizona did to John McCain last week, I’m done with them.
They’re a bunch of loonies, misanthropes, whack jobs, sociopaths and Secessionis nuts living on the public dole.
They have done more to set this state back during the past 3 years I moved here to retire: damaging tourism, trade with Mexico, transportation, education, Child Welfare, and the laughing stock of all was the picture of Gov. Brewer on the tarmac jabbing her finger up Prersent Obama’s nose (straight out of the Wizard of Oz).. probably saying that she’ll get him and his little dog..in her tactful attempt to get rid o Obamacare (which she of course ended up endorsing).. Geeeshhhhhhhhhhhh….
Too much drama in Phoenix..
Why can’t we all be freinds, instead of trying to get voters off the books who won’t vote for them?