2022 Legislative Bill Tracker: Civic Engagement and Voting Integrity
The bill tracker and analysis below on civic engagement and voter integrity is courtesy of LAMA’s coalition partner Arizona Faith Network and their team of legislative analysts. The bills below are deemed to be Priority Bills due to the speed in which they are moving through the Arizona legislature.
Lutherans have long been involved in the fight to protect voting rights in the United States. Today, the ELCA is guided by our social statement: “Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture,” as well as the 2013 ELCA Social Policy Resolution: “Voting Rights to All Citizens,” which directly calls on us to speak out as advocates and engage in local efforts such as voter registration and supporting legislation that guarantees the right to vote to all citizens.
Readers concerned about voting integrity in Arizona are encouraged to register their opinion with a “Thumbs Up” or a “Thumbs Down” on each bill using the Request To Speak (RTS) system. Based on our Lutheran call to advocate for and protect voting rights in ithe U.S., LAMA does not support the bills below.
Voter Registration
HB 2170 (Kavanagh) - election mailings; third-party disclosures : Ready for Senate COW, Passed Senate Gov 3/14
Requires any communication that includes a VR/early ballot form, or a link to that form, to include a disclaimer “Not From a Government Agency”
Likely unconstitutional compelled speech
Doesn’t apply to communications that are misinformation or intentionally misleading!
Kavanagh amendment specifies that any nongovernmental person or entity that mails or sends by email must include the required disclosure.
HB 2236 (Hoffman) - voter registration; request required: Ready for Senate COW, Passed Senate Gov 3/14
Prohibits automatic voter registration, which does not currently exist in Arizona but is being proposed both in the Fair Elections ballot initiative and federally
HB 2237 (Hoffman) - same day voter registration; prohibition: Ready for Senate COW, Passed Senate Rules 3/14
Prohibits same-day voter registration, which does not currently exist in Arizona but is being proposed both in the Fair Elections ballot initiative and federally
HB 2492 (Hoffman) - voter registration; verification; citizenship: Ready for Senate COW, passed Senate Rules 3/14
AS AMENDED: Requires people who register with a passport, birth certificate, naturalization certificate, or (probably) a tribal ID to submit additional documents proving residency. Creates new restrictions for federal-only voters (may not vote by mail, or in presidential elections) in defiance of federal law. Creates new pathways to punish non-citizens who may register to vote.
Analysis (note there is even more analysis here)
Analysis on the proof of residency piece:
As written, the bill seems to require the county recorders to get a photocopy of an ID showing your current address. It doesn’t seem to make any exceptions or create any procedures for voter registration drives or online voter registration.
Most forms of Tribal ID don't contain addresses, due to nonstandard address issues on most reservations in the state. So in many cases you would have to register using your Tribal ID number plus a photocopy of a form of ID that shows residency. Existing online voter registration is already problematic for people looking to register using tribal ID.
This type of law only exists in Wisconsin, and it has been disastrous for third-party voter registration drives and registering certain communities that less frequently have proof of residency on them or at all.
Arizona was first in the nation to have an online voter registration system - this totally torpedoes that
Analysis on the federal-only voters and non-citizens piece:
Violates U.S. Supreme Court precedent. While the Arizona legislature may add a proof-of-citizenship requirement to the state form, it has no power to add it to the federal form.
In an opinion by Justice Scalia, the Supreme Court made clear that the National Voter Registration Act's provisions on the federal registration form preempt any contrary state law regarding registration.
The language of the bill (Subsection C) is a retread of the existing proof of citizenship law but it impugns the integrity of county recorders and their staff by criminalizing acceptance of a voter registration form for full ballot rights without proof of US citizenship. That is made a Class 6 felony.
2/16 Amendment
Adds proof of citizenship requirements from 16-166 to qualifications to register and qualifications of electors in 16-101 & 16-121.
VR Applications missing any information required by 16-152 (defines registration form) or a signature will be rejected.
Adds a notice requirement for voters who would be denied the ability to vote in presidential elections or vote by early ballot due to lack of proof of citizenship.
Requires SOS to turn over a list of all federal-only voters who have not provided proof of citizenship per 16-166 to the AG. AG will use a variety of named information sources to investigate those names and prosecute those determined not to be citizens. AG must submit a report to SoS, Speaker, and Senate President concerning the findings by 3/31/23.
Requires recorders to cancel a voter’s registration when the recorder “receives information that the person registered is not a U.S. citizen.”
Doesn’t specify or limit the source of the information
Adds a severability clause so that the remainder of the bill will remain in effect if a portion of the bill is declared invalid.
2/24 Floor Amendment (offered as a substitute amendment for the 2/16 committee amendment). The amendment makes the same changes as the 2/16 amendment with these exceptions:
Will require ALL existing voters to re-register under the new proof of citizenship requirements. This seems to be a result of sloppy drafting, not an intentional goal of the bill’s sponsors.
Requires recorders to notify applicants concerning incomplete registration applications, rather than immediately rejecting them outright.
Conditions recorders’ use of data sources concerning citizenship on the recorder having access.
Provides that a valid and unexpired DL/ID number that is verified by the recorder constitutes sufficient proof of location of residence.
Note: thanks to this amendment, the bill poses much less of a threat to field and online voter registration programs as most people already register with their driver’s license number. But there are still some issues related to voter registration, which we should flag for lobbyists and highlight in our messaging:
Currently, many people register using just some form of tribal ID. That counts as proof of citizenship and they are able to vote the full ballot. But many forms of Tribal ID contain a mailing address and not a residential address. Under this bill, these voters would probably have to provide copies of other documents to prove proof of residence.
The same is presumably true of people who currently register with a photocopy of their passport, an alien registration number, or a copy of their birth certificate.
Adds “knowingly” to the felonies for recorders registering individuals contrary to the statutory requirements.
2/28 Floor Amendment
Removes the stipulation that the applicant has 30 days to return the notice sent by the county recorder with satisfactory evidence of citizenship.
States that an applicant will not be qualified to vote in a presidential election or by mail with an early ballot in any election until satisfactory evidence of citizenship is provided.
Specifies that the Attorney General must prosecute individuals who are found to not be United States citizens pursuant to statute relating to false voter registration.
HB 2617 (Chaplik) - voter registration; cancellations; causes: Ready for Senate Rules, Passed Senate Gov 3/14
Summary: changes to the process by which county recorders cancel people’s voter registrations, with the potential to result in eligible voters being kicked off the rolls
Analysis:
HB 2617 begins with a provision that mandates cancellation when the county recorder knows, receives, or obtains information on a voter's death. This should specify what the reliable sources of that information are, Arizona vital statistics, Social Security Administration, ERIC, etc.; it should not be left open-ended, lest party hacks start submitting lists of people they perceive to be dead based on faulty name-matching methodologies that fail to take into account middle initials, last 4 SSN, and other information.
Further down, they add to the same mandatory cancellation list instances where the county recorder receives information that the voter is not a US citizen. For the same reasons, we discussed in relation to HB 2492, this is a recipe for disaster given old government transaction data will show pre-naturalized folks who were ineligible but now are eligible. THERE IS NO DATABASE OF US CITIZENSHIP. I have no idea how they would go about proving that someone is NOT a US citizen, unless that person was denaturalized by a federal court. The SAVE database, leaving aside the errors it contains, is well-documented as not being a source of up-to-date information on US citizens. Now if they do have information from yesterday or last week and they contact the voter, that would be something, but they need to specify the procedure here, because otherwise it will embrace a whole lot of unreliable and/or outdated information on US citizenship or the lack thereof.
In the same provision, they mandate cancellation if you get an out-of-state driver's license or state ID. That's not a lawful basis to remove someone. Someone might well maintain homes in a few states and obtain a driver's license in another state. That does not mean that they are ineligible to vote in Arizona. I suspect a lot of rich donors to the GOP would be pissed about this provision, as they may well have homes and vacation homes in multiple states, and have cause to obtain DLs in multiple states.
The threat of referral for criminal prosecution for these last two bases is nonsense, but as long as the relevant criminal statutes say willfully registered as a non-citizen, it should be fine. Though they can of course intimidate people with these provisions even if they ultimately go after exceedingly few. But I wouldn't pick a fight on this. The worse part of subsection C is that they are not sending pre-cancellation notice, just post-cancellation notice. To comply with the Fourteenth Amendment's Due Process Clause, they need to send pre-cancellation notice and give people an opportunity to respond. This is particularly so since they currently have an open-ended statute here that allows the county recorders to rely on any information, not just specifically enumerated sources for information on the bases for removal. The Supreme Court's due process cases require more process and safeguards where there is a higher risk of erroneous deprivation of a statutory entitlement such as continuous voter registration.
What follows is a mandatory monthly database comparison and list maintenance process. The county recorder must compare their voters to the DHS SAVE database (which is a not an up-to-date list of US citizens, full stop), DOT's databases (which always has outdated information on people's citizenship status, because people get driver's licenses or state IDs prior to naturalization), the Social Security Administration database (that's fine, that's used to determine new deaths), and the "ELECTRONIC VERIFICATION OF VITAL EVENTS SYSTEM MAINTAINED BY A NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR PUBLIC HEALTH STATISTICS AND INFORMATION SYSTEMS" (I have never heard of this, but I know for certain it is not an up-to-date list of US citizens, because no such list exists in the US of A).
We should double-check whether people attest to a lack of US citizenship on their jury questionnaire. People do lie on those to get out of jury duty. Beyond that, the provisions on this should underscore that the jury questionnaire was filled out and relayed to the county recorder AFTER the date on which the voter registered.
HB 2786 (Hoffman) - voter registrations; ballot requests; source: Senate Government (no hearing yet)
Stops county recorders from using non-official PEVL request forms for signature matching
SB 1012 (Townsend) - registration database; federal voters; report: Transmitted to the House, Passed Senate 16-13
Secretary of State must provide access to the voter registration database to the legislature and the Attorney General’s “election integrity unit” and then County Recorders must remove voters whom they are told to remove based upon that analysis. County Recorders must produce reporters about Federal-only voters.
SB 1013 (Townsend) - secretary of state; federal form: House COW, Passed House Rules 3/14
Secretary of State must request the federal government add state-specific instructions on the federal registration form asking for proof of citizenship. The federal agency (EAC) will say no.
SB 1629 (Borrelli) - registration; verification; images; audits; boxes: Senate 3rd Read 3/9 (motion to reconsider)
Summary: Imposes onerous requirements on organizations and people doing voter registration, making voting registration extremely difficult, creates a bogus election integrity audit, and makes other smaller changes to election procedures
Analysis: The VR registration requirement stinks of the circulator registration requirement that has been used to attack ballot measures based on what sounds like a reasonable requirement. That seems like the sleeper disenfranchisement tool in that section. Most government bodies are required to transmit VRs in 5 days, so that sounds reasonable to me (Jim Barton). The Election Integrity Audit is just a doubling down on Stop the Steal and is an embarrassment to the state. When will it end? It exacerbates rather than solves a problem: unscrupulous attacks on our elections. The remainder feels to me like expensive burdens on our election administration that does nothing helpful.
Third-party VR
Requires all VRs to be returned within 5 days; requires a notarized registration process for any person doing more than 25 voluntary VRs in a calendar year or 1 paid VR in a calendar year; requires the SOS to set up a registration system; publishes the personal contact information of all VR collectors on the SOS’s website!; all VRs collected are tagged to a registered collector; and the collector consents to the jurisdiction of the AZ courts. (5 days may not be enough/not suited to the practical realities especially if long before any deadlines; notarization is a barrier, costs $, chills participation; How much are they appropriating for the SOS to do this?; doxxing every VR volunteer and paid employee in the state is unsafe/unconscionable and will be used to harass; out-of-state volunteers, employees, subcontractors will be hesitant to participate in AZ VR drives; may constitute an unreasonable restraint on free speech rights [requires analysis])
Election Integrity Audit
(Is none of those things! Injection of a partisan appointee, with no knowledge of elections, into a system by giving specialized scrutiny to jurisdictions that have the highest concentrations of voters of color – and who voted to elect the current president. That is not a partisan statement – it is an objective observation. Probably allows the the IG to subcontract out to the Cyber Ninjas or their ilk)
Notice from USPS of a temporary or permanent forwarding address -
Requires inquiry from recorder’s office if they receive notice of temporary or permanent forwarding address. (largest impact on snowbird and students; more legislation based on lies and conspiracy theories; unclear what happens if the voter fails to respond [but adverse action should not be allowed especially for temporary forwarding addresses])
Election worker training and testing
Requires that election workers that serve as signature verifiers receive training on FBI guidelines and be tested on that training. (not generally objectionable; include our suggestion that all election workers be trained and tested on implicit bias – and you’ve got a deal!)
Dropboxes
Seems to codify Elections Procedures Manual (EPM) provisions for dropboxes, 2019 EPM (the bill is purely performative, as this is already the law . . . )
Hand counts
Allows a hand count to proceed without sufficient bipartisan participants if enough people registered as no political party show up plus employees of the Recorder’s office [without regard to their party] are present. (Is this solving a real problem; we upend a working bipartisan process; if it is not working can we correct the existing process; isn’t this subject to abuse by flooding the election counting with planted “no political party” people [how are the Oath Keepers registered?]; it’s not paranoia when they’re really out to get you; what do the party people say about this?)
Ballot images
Requires posting of ballot images within 48 hours of the official canvass [before the election is certified!] (Although there are places that do this - an election official told me it would be very hard for citizen canvassers to duplicate the official results – so a process designed to improve confidence in elections may result in further undermining confidence in elections. The official also sent me this snip from an article: “There are at least three risks to this proposal: 1) Some people might use the forum for profanity, hate speech, incitement to violence, or disinformation. 2) Such writings could interfere with the tabulation of votes, causing more adjudicated ballots. 3) A sophisticated vote buyer could use the images to enforce vote-buying agreements. These risks could be addressed if an existing technology allows for all non-oval-filling marks to be removed before posting the ballots.” SO, places that do this mitigate by doing the above things. Unfortunately, the counties have decided NOT to “remove all non-oval-filling marks” before posting the ballots – but instead decided to ask for a waiver of liability which is included in this bill [Jen testified as much on a similar bill]. So this will allow the white supremacists to engage in a state sponsored hate speech campaign via the ballot images.
Monthly rather than yearly review of address data
Requires monthly updates of VR data against the USPS data. (largest impact on snowbirds and students; unfunded mandate on the counties; but probably not otherwise objectionable)
2/17 Amendment
Removes the codification of drop box regulations from the 2019 EPM
Loosens the introduced version's restrictions on forwarding ballot materials to a new address. The intro'd version prohibited forwarding materials at any time, while the amendment would forbid forwarding only if the forwarding address is provided within 11 days of Election Day.
Removes provisions from the introduced version that would allow county employees to participate in the hand count audit
Raises the penalty for not cooperating with the “election integrity audits” from a class 2 misdemeanor (intro version) to a class 6 felony (amendment).
Vote By Mail/Early Voting
HB 2238 (Hoffman) - ballot drop boxes; prohibition: Senate Gov (no hearing yet)
Summary: Prohibits the use of “unmonitored” drop boxes - unmonitored is not defined
Analysis:
Dropboxes are widely used in rural and tribal areas
Voting centers and drop boxes were pioneered by rural, republican leaning county recorders like Yavapai and Yuma as a way to save money.
In-Person Voting
HB 2602 (Bolick) - polling places; emergency voting centers: Assigned to Senate Gov, no date yet
Prohibits county recorders from establishing emergency voter centers unless there is a “genuine emergency” such as “war, civil unrest or natural disaster.” Appears to be a response to Fontes creating emergency voting centers on the weekend before the general election in 2020.
SB 1338 (Rogers) - paper ballots; hand count; precincts: Ready for Senate COW
Similar to Blackman’s HB2571, this eliminates machine tabulation. Expensive, slow and inaccurate. Completely unworkable in a modern state. In addition to targeting advances of the information age, this eliminates voting centers and requires everyone to vote within their precinct.
Voter ID
HB 2494 (Hoffman) - voter registration events; posting: Ready for Senate Rules, Passed Senate Gov 3/14
Re-passes a law passed in last year’s budget and then struck down on process grounds, requires elections officials to post their attendance at voter registration events on their websites within 24 hours of the event.
HB 2783 (Bolick) - election law violations; procedures manual: Passed House 3rd Read- motion to reconsider by 3/10
Taking Power over Elections Officials
HB 2378 (Bolick) - election lawsuits; settlements; approvals: Ready for Senate COW, Passed Senate Rules 3/14
Summary: Allows county recorders to block court settlements
Analysis:
Retread from last year’s 2302
Tries to solve a problem that does not really exist -- and it does it in an improper and ineffective manner.
Basically, the legislature is trying to dictate to courts how election cases should be handled -- and giving any single Recorder the equivalence of the UN Security Council veto authority over any settlement in cases involving the Secretary of State.
County Recorders already have the ability to intervene in voting and elections cases that could materially impact their abilities to perform their required functions.
There are court procedures for doing that; there are standards; and there are responsibilities. And one of those responsibilities is to participate in good faith in settlement negotiations especially when mandated or sanctioned by the court. By intervening, the Recorder becomes a full-fledged participant in the lawsuit.
Allows any Recorder, without any meaningful standards, and without any of the responsibilities and duties that go along with participating in a lawsuit and fashioning good faith settlements -- it allows a Recorder who has done none of those things to come in and say “no, that would be difficult for me” and effectively thwart a settlement.
Bad policy. It would turn out to be a nightmare in its implementation. Election cases could be dragged out forever causing damaging uncertainty.
HB 2379 (Bolick) - election procedures manual; statutory conflict: Ready for Senate COW, Passed Rules 3/14
The Manual “shall provide for transparency and election security to the maximum extent allowed by law,” whatever that means. Also restates that statutes supersede the Manual when they are in conflict (that’s already true, that’s how laws work). Allows the Legislature to provide “experts in electronic voting systems” who can recommend changes to the EPM.
HB 2621 (Parker) - consent decree; prohibited: Transmitted to the Senate
Prohibits “consent decrees” (settlements) in cases challenging the constitutionality of election laws. Mirror to SB1137.
Retaliation for this.
SB 1137 (Peterson)- change of judge; grounds; decision: Ready for 3rd Read, Passed Senate COW
Striker Prohibits “consent decrees” (settlements) in cases challenging the constitutionality of election laws. Mirror to HB 2621.
Retaliation for this.
HB 2780 (Kavanagh) - voter lists; images; voting records: Senate Government (no hearing yet)
Requires the county recorder to publish, 10 days before the primary and general election, a list of all voters who are eligible to vote in the election, including a list of inactive voters.
Establishes that the county recorder must post the voter list on their website and redact the voter's DOB, driver license number, nonoperating ID number and SSN before publishing or posting the voter list.
States that after the primary or general election and five days before the county canvass the county recorder must post in a digital format:
a) A list of voters and their method of voting;
b) All ballot images with the unique ID# from the ballot; and
c) A sortable format of the cast vote record.
Requires early and provisional ballot tabulators to imprint a unique ID number on each early ballot to allow the ballot image to be linked to the physical ballot.
Asserts that early and provisional ballots must be separated, tabulated and stored by precinct.
States that election day ballots must be stored by precinct after tabulation.
Instructs the officer in charge of elections to sort and store ballots in a manner that allows for convenient retrieval.
Ballot Measure Attacks
SB 1094 (Mesnard) - petition signatures; description; invalidity: Ready for House COW, Passed House G&E 3/2
Requires initiative/referendum circulators to read the 200-word description to the voter before they sign (or give the voter time to do so). Pretty difficult to enforce, on a practical level.
Not Obviously Problematic (Keep an Eye on it)
HB 2243 (Hoffman) - voter registration; state residency; cancellation: Ready for Senate COW, Passed Rules 3/14
Adds to the voter registration form a statement that if a voter permanently moves to another state, their registration will be cancelled. (That’s what happens already, this doesn’t appear to change the policy at all).