Lawmakers send Ducey permanent voter list overhaul
(The Center Square) – After a couple of stumbles, the Arizona Legislature sent Gov. Doug Ducey a proposal it said would clean up permanent early voting rolls.
The state Senate approved Senate Bill 1485 on Tuesday afternoon along party lines.
Should Ducey sign the measure, it would require county elections officials to send a postcard to a voter on the Permanent Early Voter List (PEVL) who missed an election over two electoral cycles. The card will ask whether they want to remain on the list. The voter, who also would be called and emailed, would have 90 days to respond before officials remove them.
Any potential removals from the law would not happen until the 2026 election cycle since they would miss votes in two cycles.
Democrats rallied against the bill, insisting it would affect mostly low-income minorities that historically have supported their party over Republicans.
“It seeks to punish those who do not regularly vote, who are not excited by the candidates, have tuned out of the issues, feel our politics are too partisan,” said Sen. Kristen Engel, D-Tucson. “The impact of this bill will be a lower turn out by those more occasional voters, many of whom will be low-income voters of color.”
Democrats claim the change would remove up to 150,000 voters from the list. More than 80% of voters did so by mail last November via PEVL, though the election came amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sen. Vince Leach, R-Tucson, said the bill removes voters who have decided not to participate, calling those “non-interested voters” a failure.
“This bill does not remove voters from any list,” he said. “After a series of items happen that are specifically spelled out in the bill, this bill removes non-voters.”
Leach listed off some instances from the 2020 election he said should give voters pause over the security of the state’s elections, one of which has been proven false by organizations that label themselves as fact-checkers.
The legislation was curbed in previous attempts to pass it due to disagreements between sponsor Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, R-Scottsdale, and Mesa Republican Sen. Kelly Townsend. Republicans have a one-member majority in the chamber. Townsend said she wouldn’t support any election reforms until after they finish the Senate’s audit of Maricopa County’s 2.1 million votes in the 2020 General Election. She voted for the bill.
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