A Republican-sponsored bill that seeks to ban early and mail-in voting in Arizona and require hand counts on all election ballots was resurrected in a Senate Government Committee hearing, causing substantial concern amongst voting rights advocacy groups in the state.
Senate Bill 2289, sponsored by Rep. John Fillmore, R- Apache Junction, stands out against the sea of election-related bills in the Legislature this session for its strict ban on early voting. The bill would ban all early and mail-in voting, eliminate drop boxes and emergency voting centers and on-site early voting, prohibit electronic vote counting and require hand counts on all ballots to be submitted within 24-hours of poll closures.
Republican lawmakers in Arizona have proposed over 100 election-related bills since January, many of which were drafted in response to disproven election fraud conspiracies regarding the 2020 presidential election.
The bills proposed a variety of measures that sought to make one-day-only voting a reality in Arizona. Among them were bans on early and mail-in voting, bans on vote-counting machines and proof of citizenship requirements for voters in federal elections.
Voting rights advocates and critics of the partisan bills warn that a one-day-only voting system, like the one suggested by SB2289, could have significant negative impacts on Black, Indigenous, Asian and Latino voters, as well as the disabled and elderly population.
“The people who wind up getting affected the most are the brown communities, the Black communities and the Indigenous. Then you add in the elderly and the disabled, and now they’re starting to strip away the rights of people who have found it easier to vote since using these modern systems,” said Brent Whiting of Tomorrow We Vote, a nonprofit, bipartisan organization that advocates for voting rights in Arizona.
Three in every four Arizona voters were on a permanent list to receive mail-in ballots as of the 2020 general election, according to a report by PolitiFact of the Poynter Institute. About 89% of Arizona voters cast early ballots ahead of election day in 2020 according to that same report.
The practice of absentee voting has existed in the state for over a century and has been a popular option for Arizona voters since 1991 when the Legislature passed a no-excuse law that stated any voter could cast an absentee ballot.
At the time, the no-excuse absentee voting legislation received bipartisan support.
The recent change in GOP support for early absentee voting in the state is thought to be the direct result of falsehoods and conspiracy theories related to the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, according to PolitiFact of the Poynter Institute.
Whiting was present at the Senate Government Committee hearing for Fillmore’s bill on March 28, which was packed with Arizonans in support and opposition of the bill.
“At that meeting, Fillmore kept bringing it back to 1975. You have to wonder why he was so comfortable with talking about the past when he was happy, and wonder if he had done any research on all of the other groups to see if this would be convenient for them,” Whiting said.
“I doubt that he went into the Black community with a survey to ask, ‘Would this be a better way to vote and would you trust a system like this?”
Whiting said the measures outlined in the bill would disproportionately impact Black voters and people of color by limiting voting options so much the process becomes nearly impossible.
Limited access to transportation, eradication of drop boxes, extremely long polling lines on election day and heightened voter identification requirements would all be limiting factors for Black and Indigenous voters, as well as the disabled and elderly communities, according to Whiting.
A 2020 study conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice found that “voters of color consistently face longer wait times on Election Day — lines that would be exacerbated by cutting alternative options, such as vote-by-mail or expansive early voting hours.”
The study found that poll wait times were longer in neighborhoods with more racial and ethnic minorities, and that polling centers with fewer White voters operated at a slower pace.
“When we wind up seeing things like these bills where it’s going back to a time that has limited Black people, which then, in turn, will limit Indigenous, limit Asian and Latino because it just trickles down that way, it’s traumatic,” Whiting said.
Supporters of the bill say it is not intended to limit the voting rights of any specific groups of people.
“We are here to suppress the cheaters, not the voters,” said Republican Sen. Kelly Townsend in the March 28 Senate Government Committee hearing. “If you don’t like that, then we have something to talk about.”
Sen. Fillmore said during the committee meeting that the bill was not related to Trump’s loss in the 2020 election, and it has to do with securing election integrity and increasing voter confidence.
Not all Republican party members, including some in the state Legislature, were in support of Fillmore’s bill due to opposition to the election fraud claims the bill was built upon.
Speaker of the House Rusty Bowers assigned Fillmore’s original election bill to 12 committees, effectively condemning it to a legislative grave. The bill was later revived by Sen. Kelly Townsend, R- Apache Junction, in a strike everything amendment.
Bowers, who backed Trump in the 2020 election, has been a consistent opponent of election fraud claims.
“I voted for President Trump and worked hard to re-elect him. But I cannot and will not entertain a suggestion that we violate current law to change the outcome of a certified election,” said Bowers in a 2020 press release after being asked to help overturn Arizona’s certified election results.
The disagreement over conspiratorial election claims amongst Republican lawmakers in the Arizona Legislature is indicative of a divide in the GOP party between those who support the disproven election conspiracy claims and those who do not.
“The last presidential election was concerning,” said Terence Chau, a senior at Arizona State University and member of ASU College Republicans, a student coalition dedicated to getting Republicans elected in Arizona. “Election integrity is important, but banning early voting wouldn’t help because it would be inconvenient.”
Jillian Bowers, another student member of ASU College Republicans, said Fillmore’s bill is a “step in the right direction.” “Making sure election day stays election day” would help to increase election integrity, Bowers said.
Whiting, on the other hand, warns that single-day voting is reminiscent of a time prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965 when states engaged in voter discrimination.
“This is a Jim Crow style bill,” Whiting said. “As much as Fillmore doesn’t like me saying that, this is what style of voting he is quoted as saying he wants to go back to and this is the bill he created that matches that.”
Whiting says SB2289 and bills that propose similar election protocol are “traumatic within the Black community.”
“It’s traumatic when you see bills like this being pushed forth, and it’s like we’re fighting the exact same fight that my parents had to fight,” Whiting said. “Why is my parents’ kid still fighting this? Why is my toddler son going to have to have this same fight with these people who want to take us backwards again?”
Whiting said there is significant generational trauma that comes with constantly pushing the narrative forward and fighting for civil rights.
“Just the generational trauma of having to do that ever since we were brought, more like stolen and brought, to this country has been a constant push forward with blood, death, bad health and bad mental health as a result. But we have to push forward until we are free,” Whiting said.
The Black community feels as though they cannot rest until there is absolute equality in every area and demographic, according to Whiting. “It isn’t equal as much as people want it to be,” he said.
“When I mentioned Jim Crow in that room, all the groans happened because people don’t want to hear that. People don’t necessarily want to hear the Black perspective,” Whiting said. “When they do, they insert their own opinion and most of them are from people who are not Black. Most of them are from people who have not experienced the Black experience, but yet they have an opinion on what we are saying and are so quick to say we are wrong.”
Fillmore’s bill most likely will not pass the full Senate, which Republicans hold by a one-vote margin. Rep. Paul Boyer, R-Glendale has voiced that he will continue to vote no on legislation that seeks to end early and absentee voting. Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, R-Scottsdale, has also demonstrated patterns of voting no on conspiracy-based election bills.
The bill highlights the polarizing impacts of disproven conspiracy theories from the 2020 election, as well as the impacts that single day voting can have on voters.
“With these bills, a lot of people who are not Black are going to learn in the smallest fraction what it’s like to be Black. The lines would be long, it’s going to be hot outside and they will experience what we have had to endure during Jim Crow, during today’s time just to be able to vote,” said Whiting. “And they are not going to like that fraction they feel.”
Contact the reporter at srcarrut@asu.edu.
