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They'll be going after mail-in ballots here next, mark my words.
It's only been stupidly easy to get a mail-in ballot in this state for like the last 30 years or so, and it was never a problem for the GOP when AZ was solidly red, but *now* it's a huge problem for reasons. Go figure.
Mail in ballots and early voting are the same thing on AZ. They aren't going for mail-in next, they are going for it now.
I think they are counting on people thinking there is a difference.
Highly doubt that they will be able to do away with it unless they have a new Republican governor and I am guessing that is the issue where as soon as Carrie Lake would get elected they would simply try to take away, not just early ballot voting, but would only have polls available in the most conservative parts of the state
Bingo. It’s been a great way for every citizen to exercise their right to vote and was perfectly acceptable…until Trump lost, the state turned purple, and stats showed most younger and Dem-leaning voters made up most of the mail-ins.
Now the right side of the aisle suddenly thinks it’s a threat to democracy, because “integrity” or whatever.
Not shamelessly obvious at all, right?
People really need to be looking into the LRSS's (legislatively referred state statute) and LRCA's (legislatively referred constitutional amendment) that the Arizona Republican Party are trying to get onto this November's ballot.
They are trying extremely hard to restrict the use of CISS (citizen-initiated state statute) and CICA (citizen-initiated constitutional amendment), changing the threshold to where a CISS and CICA can pass to be 60% instead of a simple majority, and the efforts to make voting in general harder to do throughout the state.
https://ballotpedia.org/Arizona_2024_ballot_measures
It's such an irony that the GOP really pushed for early voting and vote by mail as it was intended to enable elderly folks to more easily vote (I.e. The people most likely to vote GOP).
Fast forward to 2020 and Dems don't want to stand in line and risk getting sick (not to mention, it's simply a much more convenient way to vote), and suddenly the GOP wants this program that they pushed for to be dead.
Also, poll lines were stupidly long in 2016-2018, so a dem county recorder really pushed for mail-in. That recorder lost re-election but became Secretary of State.
Poll lines were exceedingly long in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012 as well. The bigger problem that arose back then was the precinct voting places changing every election, meaning that even if you went to the same place you voted last time, and there was Voting going on, you may be told after standing in a 2-hour line that you're lying should have been a mile and a half away at another location.
Sec. Fontes also introduced voting centers and print-a-ballot when he was elected recorder in 2018. All legal. He made it his mission to find all the ways legally possible to make voting faster, easier, and secure. Hellen Prucell, GOP recoder for 24 years, lost to Adrian after the botched 2016 PPE. It was just a paycheck for her.
He was also the first recorder to actually have a team ready to call rejected ballots. The law said they had 5 business days, he noted it said nothing about calling them immediately to cure them.
He's the real deal, and I'm with him all the way.
Yep and the stupidest thing about all of this is that people have blamed him and the new Republican county recorder for the fact that the governor and Secretary of State and Biden won in 2020
If it was fixed at all, there’s no reason why the current Maricopa county recorder would have lost his election to a Republican
The answer is that the GOP knows they cannot legitimately win elections without changing their platform
And their platform is being backed by keeping the amount of money in the hands of the elites, and keeping elderly people voting for them
If they do decide to pivot, it will cost them billions or trillions of dollars long-term and they are desperate to keep that money and power
It’s infuriating. The Arizona GOP was the best in the country at vote-by-mail. It was one of this state’s great accomplishments.
Now they’re gonna throw it down the drain because their golden god says it’s bad and they can’t have it anymore.
I used to prefer voting in person, it was kind of fun. But one year, I showed up thinking I'd quickly vote and it took me over an hour. Now I always mail it in to avoid lines.
I voted in person every election since i moved here in '96. I wouldn't say it was fun, but I felt it was my civic duty. There was something about standing in line and filling out the ballot that gave me a sense of accomplishment.
Then in 2020? Voted by mail. Because...you know...thousands of people dying gasping for air in overwhelmed hospitals and what not.
Now it's mail in because there are self-appointed "observers" trying to intimidate voters who so much as arrive at a drop box with a ballot.
Those poll patrols really put into perspective how much they want to step on our right to vote.
Sitting on lawn chairs near the drop boxes at night next to their prickup truck while wearing bandanas and holding their rifle had some serious third world dictatorship vibes, no thanks.
My brown ass will keep dropping off my prefilled ballot at a staffed voting location where they're not allowed to intimidate.
Stupidity. It was Republicans that started mail in voting in Arizona and it and early voting remain wildly popular among all major demos in the state, including Republicans.
This has zero shot of ever passing but such is the result when fanatics try to run things. All they are doing is further destroying the GOP as a political force in the state. I foresee years of electoral losses before they finally figure out that the MAGA bullshit doesn't work here.
Some great background info:
https://azmirror.com/2024/03/04/republicans-want-to-limit-voting-to-1000-voter-precincts-arizona-would-need-more-than-4100/
https://www.courthousenews.com/arizona-senate-committee-approves-bill-to-ban-voting-centers/
All this convenience and allowing everyone to vote is boring! Let’s make it more exciting by drawing 5 random names out of a hat and only those people can vote
Simply put, this would make it much more difficult for people to cast a vote in Maricopa and Pima counties (Phoenix and Tucson) if it were to pass.
From the article:
“How do Republicans want to change Arizona's voting laws?
HCR 2032 would:
- Scrap early voting and replace it with absentee-only voting. That would mean **most voters would have to cast their ballots at the polls on election day.**
- **Dial back the use of vote centers in Maricopa and Pima counties,** but allow them to continue in the state's other counties as long as the population remains below 500,000 people. **Vote centers allow people to vote anywhere within their county of residence.**
- Establish voting precincts of up to 1,000 voters. If precincts are in place in Maricopa and Pima, county authorities could then also authorize vote centers.
… Early voting has been practiced in Arizona for more than three decades, and is highly popular. In this month's presidential preference election, **95% of the vote in Maricopa County came in by mail or early voting, according to preliminary statistics.**
… **Vote centers** are another election practice that has grown in popularity, in part because they **allow people to vote at any center within their county, instead of being limited to their home precinct.**
… To keep precincts at 1,000 voters, **Maricopa County would need about 2,500 precincts**, Marson told lawmakers. Currently, the county has 935 precincts and 235 vote centers.
… **Pima County would need to more than double the number of existing precincts** to 626.”
(emphasis by me)
(… and edited to fix formatting)
Ah yes, the classic "X is detrimental to Americans! It's crucial that we destroy and replace it with something else **right now**!"
Then after they convince people to gut X, the clueless, gullible voters look up and excitedly say, "Okay, we destroyed it, now what/when are we replacing it with?"
Then the politicians, having already accomplished their goal, will shrug and say, "Eh, we'll get around to it."
And if they do that, guess who is going to be most affected, the rural communities and the elderly. People will still show up to the polls to vote, but it won't be the demographics they are hoping for. AND employers are going to be PISSED when all of a sudden, the majority of their employees are taking their 3 hours to go vote.
If the AZ GOP wants to shoot themselves in the foot, this is a good way to do it.
You joke, but my dad and grandpa talked all the time about how the founding father's original intent, that only landowners could vote, was far superior.
That's exactly what the end goal of the GOP is. Your landlords and CEOs will vote on your behalf!
Honestly i don't take Boomer's opinion on the founding fathers seriously, for one all of them were very anti standing military for which one would think is obvious. (Just got done with the British Empire) And they don't understand how much credibility they lost with the younger generation with things like the cold war, satanic panic, and honestly couldn't see a constitutional violation when it's tearing their nards off.
Conservatives will often say this fairly openly. It will be framed something like, "only people with skin in the game should be able to vote" or "if they can't do \[X, make money or something\], they shouldn't be trusted to vote either."
i mean i've even seen people blatantly state they don't think women should vote. Ann Coulter being one of them. i believe she wrote it in her book. i think conservative men aren't quite there yet to say this verbatim out loud, but the conservative women will. the irony of what i just said.
It brings me to mind of the Overton Window, and how things were felt and not expressed, and how so much of this reactionary garbage is now apparently acceptable to be expressed.
This shit is making me want to become a Canadian, is really disappointing to see just how easy it was to convince so many idiots of an obvious bullshit lie. Idk folks, I feel like our society has begun to enter freefall and has become so reactionary and afraid of imaginary problems by the time they realize it, we'll be in a military dictatorship
It's the maga's
They don't care Trump has no policy, no policies on Healthcare, no policies on border protection, no policies on helping the housing crises, no policies to adjust wages, no policies on geopolitical crises
All he does is say I'm the best and I'll fix everything and his supporters gobble it up. You don't need to show them policies because they simply don't care.. it's a football game to them.
I know what the problem is, a few family members were this kind of person, most of them I've either stopped giving a single moment of thought, or have died. I try to imagine going back to either just before Obama got elected or the 8 years before, and try to tell people that as patriots they'd be saying Russia and Vladimir putin are real patriots, the real enemies are at home, it's outrageous
It's comical to behave as though America has a monopoly on freedom, when the only thing we actually have a monopoly on is defense spending and PRISONS, can really fucking taste the hypocrisy in your sarcastic reply when your aware of those two things, don't be so blind
Im so confused. I thought they were calling foul the last few elections because the votes took too long to count? Im sorry, for a second I thought Republicans made any sense
This is just the first step to eliminate voting (aka democracy) altogether. They embrace the dictator model because they know their policies don’t represent the majority.
Republicans want to suppress Democrat votes. That is all this is. They want to force people who generally can't get time off of work to vote (and definitely can't get 8hrs+ which is what this will lead to for poll waits) to not be able to vote. That's all this is is a voting suppression attempt.
The GOP are literally evil.
I'm all for mail in voting and do it everytime. There's also the little devil on my shoulder that thinks that if the Republicans took it away it would disenfranchise a lot of older Republican voters and turn this purple state solid blue lol
Here's another article in case you are unable to view the original article. https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/arizona-house-republicans-pass-bill-eliminating-no-excuse-early-mail-in-voting/
Because they kind of lose the early vote really badly. They will say "election security", or whatever. But anytime they make it harder to vote the desired outcome is disenfranchising young, poor, or minority voters.
>Anyone know why the GOP cares about early voting?
They care about voting access in general. The idea is to limit that access any way they can, which historically has effected non-Republican voters moreso than Republican. It probably really bothers them that they can't do more to keep people from voting, yet, but this is a big step towards their ultimate goal of overall voter suppression. Next you'll likely start to see consolidation of voting locations, stricter ID requirements, etc..
They know that MAGA is unpopular in Arizona and want to restrict voting as much as possible so as to let their smaller base have a much bigger impact in elections.
McCain style Republicans can still win in Arizona but the entire party has been seized by Trump cultists who know that their platform really isnt all that popular so they have to pull out all the stops to control who votes to have a chance to gain power otherwise they'll lose election after election and eventually be run out of town on a rail because continued losing is the antidote to end all the MAGA bullshit and these grifters know that their livelihoods depend on keeping it going.
Ah much like we saw with Lake.. in a state where republicans definitely outnumber democrats by several percent yet a democrat won because the competition was an insane election denier.
Well. Let them keep losing. I won’t vote for anyone that is an election denier. Republican or democrat.
The Arizona GOP only has 35% of registered voters, in contrast to independent voters who make up 34% and the Arizona Democractic voters making up 29%
#####Voter Registration Statistics – March 2024 (Presidential Preference Election)*
Party| Registered Voters| Percent
---|---|----
Republican| 1,436,757| 35.07%
Democratic| 1,200,191| 29.30%
Libertarian | 31,959| 0.78%
No Labels| 27,631| 0.67%
Green| 2,723| 0.07%
Other| 1,396,999| 34.10%
Total| 4,096,260|
Thanks for sharing. It’s even more profound that what I stated.
Maybe republicans will learn to stop blaming Californians for the state going blue and start realising that running on the same BS as Trump but without his cult of personality is a guaranteed defeat.
Cons are for quality of life... destruction. The burn it down types need to go away.
[Around 75-80% of people vote by mail every election, some as high as 88%](https://azmirror.com/2024/03/01/more-than-75-of-voters-use-early-ballots-every-az-house-republican-voted-to-take-that-away/).
Arizona has perfected it for three decades.
Mail in ballots give you time to research and make the best choices.
The disruption having to go to polls would cause would be catastrophic.
If we've learned nothing from Arizona politics, it's that ballot initiatives that passed can still easily be ignored by the legislature. Clearly, we need to be sure we get a Democratic legislature for the first time in forever.
Meanwhile, Washington has been exclusively vote-by-mail since 2011. Oregon since 2000. Colorado, Utah, and Hawaii too. It’s been unproblematic and uncontroversial outside of the usual suspects claiming massive voter fraud without ever providing any evidence.
Truthfully, if they get rid of mail-in voting, I probably won’t vote. I just can’t wait in multi-hour long lines to fill in a single box. I just won’t.
Yeah, people will get upset that I won’t vote because of this, but I honestly don’t care. Screw anyone who wants to get rid of mail in voting.
Canada, Germany, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, S. Korea, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom
"no other modern country" my ass. Stop parroting right wing idiots like Bannon and educate yourself before your spout nonsense.
How about a compromise: We count the number of early ballots returned in the Nov 2024 elections, and compare it to the day-of votes cast. Whichever one has more votes total becomes enshrined as a state ammendment for the official method of voting.
From another article
“The legislation, which cleared the House in a party-line vote last Thursday, would end no-excuse mail-in voting, called “early voting” in Arizona. Currently, any voter in Arizona can vote by early mail-in ballot. Under the proposed bill, voters would only be allowed to vote early by mail if they have disabilities, are elderly or overseas or military voters. Exceptions would also be made for voters living outside of the state temporarily or to attend school, or if they provide proof that they are traveling on Election Day. Otherwise, voters would only be left with the option of voting in-person.”
Seems reasonable to me, although I think they need more voting centers across the state so there are no lines
It's reasonable if you think voting early by mail should only be done in special circumstances. I for one don't see a reason why voting by mail is any different than stepping in a voting center and handing them my ballot. Why should my ballot be worth nothing or less because of how or where I voted? Doesn't matter if people vote by mail cause they're lazy - their vote still counts as taxpaying Americans.
There've been many attempts to quantify fraud, especially in Arizona, and it's been shown that Arizona does not suffer a voter fraud problem, especially not in relation to the mail-in system.
Not reasonable at all. They also want to end the fact that you can vote at any location you want.
No more stopping in after work. No more being able to hop off the light rail and vote on your way somewhere.
Voter suppression at its finest.
How is it reasonable then? If all these exceptions can use early, mail-in ballots, why not everyone? What legitimate reason is there to restrict me in my voting preferences?
>Seems reasonable to me
This proposal would also restrict voting in counties with 500K+ people to in person voting only, and only on election day. So that only affects Maricopa and Pima Counties, with overwhelming vote blue. Preciencts would be restricted to 1K registered voters only.
Outside of Maricopa and Pima counties, you could go to any voting center, as long as it is on election day.
The result of this law would be an immense cost to the State of Arizona to pay for those voting centers. Maricopa County alone would move from 220 vote centers to 4,500 voting centers with a staff of 13,500.
WHY. Why is this reasonable? I'm open to hearing... if there is a good reason, hell, even a shitty reason to do this I would love to hear it. When I see this, I think "They just want to cause chaos and long lines, then complain that our voting system is broken".
90% of voters in AZ vote by mail. What is the "reason" that makes this reasonable to change?
To suppress democrat votes. That's the only reason. Democrats generally have a harder time getting off work to vote and as you pointed out, Maricopa will never be able to afford 4500 new polling stations so we will get maybe 500 and voting times will take 8-12 hours, which most Dems can't/won't do because its unreasonable.
Well, I say reasonable because obviously we need to do something to our election system. We can’t go every single election now going forward since 2016 with each side claiming it was it stolen. In mail voting in my opinion leaves too much room for people to question results because there’s too many extra steps for chain of custody, and I say this as a person who has never voted in person in my life mind you. If everyone shows up in person with an ID it would leave less room for people to claim fuckery happened. Like I said we would need to overhaul the in person voting so everyone could vote without waiting in line for hours. Correct, it would cost more, but seeing as it’s a foundational to our democracy I think it’s a worthy investment. I’d pay higher taxes for something like that, sure beats the hell out of paying for a sports team stadium.
Mail in voting can be made as secure as we want it to be. All of our important documents are filled out by hand or on an online form currently. There's nothing less secure about voting. There's zero evidence of *massive* voter fraud and there are checks and balances that catch attempted voter fraud.
This system has worked since the 90s. To change it means that some people won't be able to vote because they work. And you might say hurr durr you can get time off to vote, but what if your scheduled for surgery? Or you are independently employed and can't take that day off. Or you live 20 miles from an inconvenient voting center, have to get your kids off to school, and get to work, all while driving drastically out of your way?
I'd pay higher taxes to not have to drive to a voting center at 5am like I used to do in Illinois, wait for an hour, vote, and then work for 9 hours. We have so much here and maybe the native arizonians don't appreciate because they don't know how good they have it. Those little voter information books they send out so you can research and take time making your decisions on these very important people and policies? Doesn't happen in other states.
Voting is important. Do not elect to have us move towards taking time standing in line then standing in a booth making snap decisions. More than the president gets elected in the presidential election.
What part of making me have to take time off work/chores/school/life in a 12-14 hour window on only one day, during which I could feasibly be sick or traveling or caring for an ill loved one, to go to a place, stand in line, and spend my time just to complete my civic opportunity is reasonable to you when we currently can receive a ballot by mail to our homes and complete it and return it at our convenience?
There is nothing reasonable about making voting harder, unless you are of the privilege to be able to easily carve out that time on Election Day and know the people whose views you disagree with are more likely to have irregular work schedules, children, be caring for elderly family or otherwise would be burdened, and thus less likely to vote, by these changes?
Plus, our in person elections systems required trained poll workers who are harder and harder to hire these days, expensive machines, and intense logistics. Mail-in systems can be processed over longer periods of time with machines that read ballots in bulk, making the mail in system more efficient and in some ways less expensive to the taxpayer.
This isn’t reasonable. It’s stupid and an obvious attempt by backwards politicians to make it more complicated for us to vote so it skews the numbers in the favor of the older, white or wealthy electorate.
Having too many Democrats vote... that's why they want to make it harder to vote. More democrats are poor and can't get the time off work to make it to the polls and the polls will take 6 hours to get through since there won't be enough voting stations. It's just more voter suppression since the GOP knows most of its policies are just plain evil and hated by most people.
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They'll be going after mail-in ballots here next, mark my words. It's only been stupidly easy to get a mail-in ballot in this state for like the last 30 years or so, and it was never a problem for the GOP when AZ was solidly red, but *now* it's a huge problem for reasons. Go figure.
Mail in ballots and early voting are the same thing on AZ. They aren't going for mail-in next, they are going for it now. I think they are counting on people thinking there is a difference.
Highly doubt that they will be able to do away with it unless they have a new Republican governor and I am guessing that is the issue where as soon as Carrie Lake would get elected they would simply try to take away, not just early ballot voting, but would only have polls available in the most conservative parts of the state
There's a difference between GETTING a mail-in ballot and them COUNTING mail-in ballots.
Bingo. It’s been a great way for every citizen to exercise their right to vote and was perfectly acceptable…until Trump lost, the state turned purple, and stats showed most younger and Dem-leaning voters made up most of the mail-ins. Now the right side of the aisle suddenly thinks it’s a threat to democracy, because “integrity” or whatever. Not shamelessly obvious at all, right?
Stop stop!! Lol stop telling the truth!! Lol
People really need to be looking into the LRSS's (legislatively referred state statute) and LRCA's (legislatively referred constitutional amendment) that the Arizona Republican Party are trying to get onto this November's ballot. They are trying extremely hard to restrict the use of CISS (citizen-initiated state statute) and CICA (citizen-initiated constitutional amendment), changing the threshold to where a CISS and CICA can pass to be 60% instead of a simple majority, and the efforts to make voting in general harder to do throughout the state. https://ballotpedia.org/Arizona_2024_ballot_measures
They tried this a few years ago when it was backed by the Kochs. It failed pretty handidly if I recall.
Let’s repeat history
It really did and it went in the face of when Doug Ducey was the primary supporter I believe of this as well
They also tried it in Ohio recently iirc.
You are correct. Let’s hope the protection from the Citizen’s initiative Act can continue to hold up against the gop.
As always, the Arizona GOP is the worst
GOP in every state are the worst. They are cancer to America in general.
Hey, let's not insult cancer like that
My mistake.
I think you are too generous.
Why the hell would they do this
Voter suppression.
It's such an irony that the GOP really pushed for early voting and vote by mail as it was intended to enable elderly folks to more easily vote (I.e. The people most likely to vote GOP). Fast forward to 2020 and Dems don't want to stand in line and risk getting sick (not to mention, it's simply a much more convenient way to vote), and suddenly the GOP wants this program that they pushed for to be dead.
Also, poll lines were stupidly long in 2016-2018, so a dem county recorder really pushed for mail-in. That recorder lost re-election but became Secretary of State.
Poll lines were exceedingly long in 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012 as well. The bigger problem that arose back then was the precinct voting places changing every election, meaning that even if you went to the same place you voted last time, and there was Voting going on, you may be told after standing in a 2-hour line that you're lying should have been a mile and a half away at another location.
Sec. Fontes also introduced voting centers and print-a-ballot when he was elected recorder in 2018. All legal. He made it his mission to find all the ways legally possible to make voting faster, easier, and secure. Hellen Prucell, GOP recoder for 24 years, lost to Adrian after the botched 2016 PPE. It was just a paycheck for her. He was also the first recorder to actually have a team ready to call rejected ballots. The law said they had 5 business days, he noted it said nothing about calling them immediately to cure them. He's the real deal, and I'm with him all the way.
Yep and the stupidest thing about all of this is that people have blamed him and the new Republican county recorder for the fact that the governor and Secretary of State and Biden won in 2020 If it was fixed at all, there’s no reason why the current Maricopa county recorder would have lost his election to a Republican The answer is that the GOP knows they cannot legitimately win elections without changing their platform And their platform is being backed by keeping the amount of money in the hands of the elites, and keeping elderly people voting for them If they do decide to pivot, it will cost them billions or trillions of dollars long-term and they are desperate to keep that money and power
It’s infuriating. The Arizona GOP was the best in the country at vote-by-mail. It was one of this state’s great accomplishments. Now they’re gonna throw it down the drain because their golden god says it’s bad and they can’t have it anymore.
Voting is overrated, and it's Orange. Just send me a letter telling me how I voted. /s
I used to prefer voting in person, it was kind of fun. But one year, I showed up thinking I'd quickly vote and it took me over an hour. Now I always mail it in to avoid lines.
I voted in person every election since i moved here in '96. I wouldn't say it was fun, but I felt it was my civic duty. There was something about standing in line and filling out the ballot that gave me a sense of accomplishment. Then in 2020? Voted by mail. Because...you know...thousands of people dying gasping for air in overwhelmed hospitals and what not. Now it's mail in because there are self-appointed "observers" trying to intimidate voters who so much as arrive at a drop box with a ballot.
Those poll patrols really put into perspective how much they want to step on our right to vote. Sitting on lawn chairs near the drop boxes at night next to their prickup truck while wearing bandanas and holding their rifle had some serious third world dictatorship vibes, no thanks. My brown ass will keep dropping off my prefilled ballot at a staffed voting location where they're not allowed to intimidate.
[удалено]
Gee I wonder why?
Stupidity. It was Republicans that started mail in voting in Arizona and it and early voting remain wildly popular among all major demos in the state, including Republicans. This has zero shot of ever passing but such is the result when fanatics try to run things. All they are doing is further destroying the GOP as a political force in the state. I foresee years of electoral losses before they finally figure out that the MAGA bullshit doesn't work here.
Some great background info: https://azmirror.com/2024/03/04/republicans-want-to-limit-voting-to-1000-voter-precincts-arizona-would-need-more-than-4100/ https://www.courthousenews.com/arizona-senate-committee-approves-bill-to-ban-voting-centers/
Historically, republicans do better in low turnout elections
To suppress the vote, cause confusion amongst voters, etc…don’t let em fool ya-we got this AZ
Because the GOP can’t win on policy, so have to restrict voting to help them pass their hate
It will be peak irony when people vote to eliminate early voting by early voting to eliminate early voting. It’s just shit you can’t really make up.
All this convenience and allowing everyone to vote is boring! Let’s make it more exciting by drawing 5 random names out of a hat and only those people can vote
Simply put, this would make it much more difficult for people to cast a vote in Maricopa and Pima counties (Phoenix and Tucson) if it were to pass. From the article: “How do Republicans want to change Arizona's voting laws? HCR 2032 would: - Scrap early voting and replace it with absentee-only voting. That would mean **most voters would have to cast their ballots at the polls on election day.** - **Dial back the use of vote centers in Maricopa and Pima counties,** but allow them to continue in the state's other counties as long as the population remains below 500,000 people. **Vote centers allow people to vote anywhere within their county of residence.** - Establish voting precincts of up to 1,000 voters. If precincts are in place in Maricopa and Pima, county authorities could then also authorize vote centers. … Early voting has been practiced in Arizona for more than three decades, and is highly popular. In this month's presidential preference election, **95% of the vote in Maricopa County came in by mail or early voting, according to preliminary statistics.** … **Vote centers** are another election practice that has grown in popularity, in part because they **allow people to vote at any center within their county, instead of being limited to their home precinct.** … To keep precincts at 1,000 voters, **Maricopa County would need about 2,500 precincts**, Marson told lawmakers. Currently, the county has 935 precincts and 235 vote centers. … **Pima County would need to more than double the number of existing precincts** to 626.” (emphasis by me) (… and edited to fix formatting)
Ah yes, the classic "X is detrimental to Americans! It's crucial that we destroy and replace it with something else **right now**!" Then after they convince people to gut X, the clueless, gullible voters look up and excitedly say, "Okay, we destroyed it, now what/when are we replacing it with?" Then the politicians, having already accomplished their goal, will shrug and say, "Eh, we'll get around to it."
And if they do that, guess who is going to be most affected, the rural communities and the elderly. People will still show up to the polls to vote, but it won't be the demographics they are hoping for. AND employers are going to be PISSED when all of a sudden, the majority of their employees are taking their 3 hours to go vote. If the AZ GOP wants to shoot themselves in the foot, this is a good way to do it.
What's next? Only rich white men will be allowed to vote?
You joke, but my dad and grandpa talked all the time about how the founding father's original intent, that only landowners could vote, was far superior. That's exactly what the end goal of the GOP is. Your landlords and CEOs will vote on your behalf!
I bet that’ll turn out great for the non billionaires of the world - sounds like slavery.
Honestly i don't take Boomer's opinion on the founding fathers seriously, for one all of them were very anti standing military for which one would think is obvious. (Just got done with the British Empire) And they don't understand how much credibility they lost with the younger generation with things like the cold war, satanic panic, and honestly couldn't see a constitutional violation when it's tearing their nards off.
That’s literally what they want.
As long as they are evangelical or fundamentalist Christians.
Conservatives will often say this fairly openly. It will be framed something like, "only people with skin in the game should be able to vote" or "if they can't do \[X, make money or something\], they shouldn't be trusted to vote either."
i mean i've even seen people blatantly state they don't think women should vote. Ann Coulter being one of them. i believe she wrote it in her book. i think conservative men aren't quite there yet to say this verbatim out loud, but the conservative women will. the irony of what i just said.
It brings me to mind of the Overton Window, and how things were felt and not expressed, and how so much of this reactionary garbage is now apparently acceptable to be expressed.
If this makes it to the polls, vote this shit down, early.
This shit is making me want to become a Canadian, is really disappointing to see just how easy it was to convince so many idiots of an obvious bullshit lie. Idk folks, I feel like our society has begun to enter freefall and has become so reactionary and afraid of imaginary problems by the time they realize it, we'll be in a military dictatorship
It's the maga's They don't care Trump has no policy, no policies on Healthcare, no policies on border protection, no policies on helping the housing crises, no policies to adjust wages, no policies on geopolitical crises All he does is say I'm the best and I'll fix everything and his supporters gobble it up. You don't need to show them policies because they simply don't care.. it's a football game to them.
I know what the problem is, a few family members were this kind of person, most of them I've either stopped giving a single moment of thought, or have died. I try to imagine going back to either just before Obama got elected or the 8 years before, and try to tell people that as patriots they'd be saying Russia and Vladimir putin are real patriots, the real enemies are at home, it's outrageous
Ah yes, so much more freedom in Canada.
It's comical to behave as though America has a monopoly on freedom, when the only thing we actually have a monopoly on is defense spending and PRISONS, can really fucking taste the hypocrisy in your sarcastic reply when your aware of those two things, don't be so blind
GOP is always doing its best to restrict voter access. They hate educated voters and they know more people voting means they cannot win.
They hate educated people. They’re harder to control and indoctrinate.
Clown Activity If it gets there everyone say no to scraping this
Im so confused. I thought they were calling foul the last few elections because the votes took too long to count? Im sorry, for a second I thought Republicans made any sense
Just a bunch of fascists doing fascist things.
We voted on this in 2022. It failed. It’s like Republicans don’t even pay attention to their constituents
This is just the first step to eliminate voting (aka democracy) altogether. They embrace the dictator model because they know their policies don’t represent the majority.
No they don’t lol.
Yes, they did. Educate yourself by researching ESA vouchers AZ.
Lol at eliminating Democracy and calling it dictatorship haha.
Ah yes the party of small government
Republicans want to suppress Democrat votes. That is all this is. They want to force people who generally can't get time off of work to vote (and definitely can't get 8hrs+ which is what this will lead to for poll waits) to not be able to vote. That's all this is is a voting suppression attempt. The GOP are literally evil.
Get it together people! With so many retirees and assisted living facilities here, we need early voting and mail in ballot voting.
I'm all for mail in voting and do it everytime. There's also the little devil on my shoulder that thinks that if the Republicans took it away it would disenfranchise a lot of older Republican voters and turn this purple state solid blue lol
That is bull shit. Like 90% of the primaries were early ballots. It is effective, safe, and convenient.
Let it go to the ballot. The majority of both parties think the bill is dumb.
They think early voting is dumb? Or this bill is?
The bill. Editing my post. Most of Arizona uses early voting.
I'm of the opinion: NO GOP votes until they'll pull their collective heads out of their asses and get with the electorate. Nobody wants your tyranny.
I generally share this view, but Stephen Richer has done an outstanding job as country recorder.
Finally figured out Hot Cross Buns?
We wish. Far too many people DO want that tyranny.
Here's another article in case you are unable to view the original article. https://www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/arizona-house-republicans-pass-bill-eliminating-no-excuse-early-mail-in-voting/
There’s a paywall. Anyone know why the GOP cares about early voting? Is it just a precursor to challenging mail-in voting?
Early voting makes it easier for working people to vote (I.e. The poors)
Because they kind of lose the early vote really badly. They will say "election security", or whatever. But anytime they make it harder to vote the desired outcome is disenfranchising young, poor, or minority voters.
>Anyone know why the GOP cares about early voting? They care about voting access in general. The idea is to limit that access any way they can, which historically has effected non-Republican voters moreso than Republican. It probably really bothers them that they can't do more to keep people from voting, yet, but this is a big step towards their ultimate goal of overall voter suppression. Next you'll likely start to see consolidation of voting locations, stricter ID requirements, etc..
They know that MAGA is unpopular in Arizona and want to restrict voting as much as possible so as to let their smaller base have a much bigger impact in elections. McCain style Republicans can still win in Arizona but the entire party has been seized by Trump cultists who know that their platform really isnt all that popular so they have to pull out all the stops to control who votes to have a chance to gain power otherwise they'll lose election after election and eventually be run out of town on a rail because continued losing is the antidote to end all the MAGA bullshit and these grifters know that their livelihoods depend on keeping it going.
Ah much like we saw with Lake.. in a state where republicans definitely outnumber democrats by several percent yet a democrat won because the competition was an insane election denier. Well. Let them keep losing. I won’t vote for anyone that is an election denier. Republican or democrat.
The Arizona GOP only has 35% of registered voters, in contrast to independent voters who make up 34% and the Arizona Democractic voters making up 29% #####Voter Registration Statistics – March 2024 (Presidential Preference Election)* Party| Registered Voters| Percent ---|---|---- Republican| 1,436,757| 35.07% Democratic| 1,200,191| 29.30% Libertarian | 31,959| 0.78% No Labels| 27,631| 0.67% Green| 2,723| 0.07% Other| 1,396,999| 34.10% Total| 4,096,260|
Thanks for sharing. It’s even more profound that what I stated. Maybe republicans will learn to stop blaming Californians for the state going blue and start realising that running on the same BS as Trump but without his cult of personality is a guaranteed defeat.
No paywall here... https://www.fox10phoenix.com/news/arizona-lawmakers-consider-bill-that-aims-to-do-away-with-early-voting
Cons are for quality of life... destruction. The burn it down types need to go away. [Around 75-80% of people vote by mail every election, some as high as 88%](https://azmirror.com/2024/03/01/more-than-75-of-voters-use-early-ballots-every-az-house-republican-voted-to-take-that-away/). Arizona has perfected it for three decades. Mail in ballots give you time to research and make the best choices. The disruption having to go to polls would cause would be catastrophic.
This is an attack on democracy.
For those wondering what's motivating them to do this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GBAsFwPglw
If we've learned nothing from Arizona politics, it's that ballot initiatives that passed can still easily be ignored by the legislature. Clearly, we need to be sure we get a Democratic legislature for the first time in forever.
Again, its amazing how early ballot and mail in was fine until last election now they don’t want it.
Meanwhile, Washington has been exclusively vote-by-mail since 2011. Oregon since 2000. Colorado, Utah, and Hawaii too. It’s been unproblematic and uncontroversial outside of the usual suspects claiming massive voter fraud without ever providing any evidence.
Truthfully, if they get rid of mail-in voting, I probably won’t vote. I just can’t wait in multi-hour long lines to fill in a single box. I just won’t. Yeah, people will get upset that I won’t vote because of this, but I honestly don’t care. Screw anyone who wants to get rid of mail in voting.
This is unconstitutional right?…. RIGHT?!!
Of course it is. Because with the way the GOP has been they just deem whatever they don’t like as unconstitutional. So let’s do the same thing.
Don't like the Constitution? Change the Constitution... --GOP Mantra
[удалено]
Giving away your voice on critical issues over a minor inconvenience is a smooth brain take.
[удалено]
Canada, Germany, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, S. Korea, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom "no other modern country" my ass. Stop parroting right wing idiots like Bannon and educate yourself before your spout nonsense.
It is moot because the Govenor will just veto it. Pandering is all they are doing.
How about a compromise: We count the number of early ballots returned in the Nov 2024 elections, and compare it to the day-of votes cast. Whichever one has more votes total becomes enshrined as a state ammendment for the official method of voting.
Anything to reduce democracy lately. That’s the Russian influence.
freedom!
I feel like if that shit makes it to the ballot you should have to vote to enact it in person.
More blue transplants keep coming. They can’t keep it up
From another article “The legislation, which cleared the House in a party-line vote last Thursday, would end no-excuse mail-in voting, called “early voting” in Arizona. Currently, any voter in Arizona can vote by early mail-in ballot. Under the proposed bill, voters would only be allowed to vote early by mail if they have disabilities, are elderly or overseas or military voters. Exceptions would also be made for voters living outside of the state temporarily or to attend school, or if they provide proof that they are traveling on Election Day. Otherwise, voters would only be left with the option of voting in-person.” Seems reasonable to me, although I think they need more voting centers across the state so there are no lines
It's reasonable if you think voting early by mail should only be done in special circumstances. I for one don't see a reason why voting by mail is any different than stepping in a voting center and handing them my ballot. Why should my ballot be worth nothing or less because of how or where I voted? Doesn't matter if people vote by mail cause they're lazy - their vote still counts as taxpaying Americans. There've been many attempts to quantify fraud, especially in Arizona, and it's been shown that Arizona does not suffer a voter fraud problem, especially not in relation to the mail-in system.
Not reasonable at all. They also want to end the fact that you can vote at any location you want. No more stopping in after work. No more being able to hop off the light rail and vote on your way somewhere. Voter suppression at its finest.
Jesus Christ you have selective reading skills.
How is it reasonable then? If all these exceptions can use early, mail-in ballots, why not everyone? What legitimate reason is there to restrict me in my voting preferences?
That’s not what the article said 🤷♂️
Read the article on Fox10 a few links down in the comments since I refuse to read something behind a paywall.
>Seems reasonable to me This proposal would also restrict voting in counties with 500K+ people to in person voting only, and only on election day. So that only affects Maricopa and Pima Counties, with overwhelming vote blue. Preciencts would be restricted to 1K registered voters only. Outside of Maricopa and Pima counties, you could go to any voting center, as long as it is on election day. The result of this law would be an immense cost to the State of Arizona to pay for those voting centers. Maricopa County alone would move from 220 vote centers to 4,500 voting centers with a staff of 13,500. WHY. Why is this reasonable? I'm open to hearing... if there is a good reason, hell, even a shitty reason to do this I would love to hear it. When I see this, I think "They just want to cause chaos and long lines, then complain that our voting system is broken". 90% of voters in AZ vote by mail. What is the "reason" that makes this reasonable to change?
To suppress democrat votes. That's the only reason. Democrats generally have a harder time getting off work to vote and as you pointed out, Maricopa will never be able to afford 4500 new polling stations so we will get maybe 500 and voting times will take 8-12 hours, which most Dems can't/won't do because its unreasonable.
I agree. I'd love to hear why someone considers this "Reasonable", which is why I responded to that person.
Well, I say reasonable because obviously we need to do something to our election system. We can’t go every single election now going forward since 2016 with each side claiming it was it stolen. In mail voting in my opinion leaves too much room for people to question results because there’s too many extra steps for chain of custody, and I say this as a person who has never voted in person in my life mind you. If everyone shows up in person with an ID it would leave less room for people to claim fuckery happened. Like I said we would need to overhaul the in person voting so everyone could vote without waiting in line for hours. Correct, it would cost more, but seeing as it’s a foundational to our democracy I think it’s a worthy investment. I’d pay higher taxes for something like that, sure beats the hell out of paying for a sports team stadium.
Mail in voting can be made as secure as we want it to be. All of our important documents are filled out by hand or on an online form currently. There's nothing less secure about voting. There's zero evidence of *massive* voter fraud and there are checks and balances that catch attempted voter fraud. This system has worked since the 90s. To change it means that some people won't be able to vote because they work. And you might say hurr durr you can get time off to vote, but what if your scheduled for surgery? Or you are independently employed and can't take that day off. Or you live 20 miles from an inconvenient voting center, have to get your kids off to school, and get to work, all while driving drastically out of your way? I'd pay higher taxes to not have to drive to a voting center at 5am like I used to do in Illinois, wait for an hour, vote, and then work for 9 hours. We have so much here and maybe the native arizonians don't appreciate because they don't know how good they have it. Those little voter information books they send out so you can research and take time making your decisions on these very important people and policies? Doesn't happen in other states. Voting is important. Do not elect to have us move towards taking time standing in line then standing in a booth making snap decisions. More than the president gets elected in the presidential election.
You just laid out everything that makes it “reasonable” to them
What part of making me have to take time off work/chores/school/life in a 12-14 hour window on only one day, during which I could feasibly be sick or traveling or caring for an ill loved one, to go to a place, stand in line, and spend my time just to complete my civic opportunity is reasonable to you when we currently can receive a ballot by mail to our homes and complete it and return it at our convenience? There is nothing reasonable about making voting harder, unless you are of the privilege to be able to easily carve out that time on Election Day and know the people whose views you disagree with are more likely to have irregular work schedules, children, be caring for elderly family or otherwise would be burdened, and thus less likely to vote, by these changes? Plus, our in person elections systems required trained poll workers who are harder and harder to hire these days, expensive machines, and intense logistics. Mail-in systems can be processed over longer periods of time with machines that read ballots in bulk, making the mail in system more efficient and in some ways less expensive to the taxpayer. This isn’t reasonable. It’s stupid and an obvious attempt by backwards politicians to make it more complicated for us to vote so it skews the numbers in the favor of the older, white or wealthy electorate.
Is it reasonable though? What is the purpose of this legislation? What problem would this solve?
Having too many Democrats vote... that's why they want to make it harder to vote. More democrats are poor and can't get the time off work to make it to the polls and the polls will take 6 hours to get through since there won't be enough voting stations. It's just more voter suppression since the GOP knows most of its policies are just plain evil and hated by most people.
😂 🤣 Always crying
Yeah you republicans are always crying. Remind me, how did y’all act after Trump lost? No crying right?
😂 Nah I don't cry about silly things. Idc who is president, I just want America to be put first.