The Republican Party's continued efforts to criminalize voters is getting more and more extreme.

[Nevilledog]

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Ian Bassin
@ianbassin
The Republican Party’s continued efforts to criminalize voters is getting more and more extreme.

@protctdemocracy’s @braderstorf and @delaneygomen explain a frightening new bill in Arizona that would refer sloppy signatures to law enforcement:

New election bill could make criminals out of voters
If this bill passes, any absentee voter in Arizona who signs their ballot sloppily and fails to fix the error after Election Day could find themselves caught up in a criminal investigation. This wo…
azcapitoltimes.com
6:37 PM · May 26, 2021

https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2021/05/26/new-election-bill-could-make-criminals-out-of-voters/

This week, the state legislature is considering SB1241, a wide-ranging elections bill championed by Sen. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa. Buried in this multi-pronged bill is a new and troubling provision that could ensnare thousands of Arizona seniors, voters with disabilities, students, and other absentee voters in surprise criminal investigations.

As any Arizona absentee voter knows, for your vote to count, you have to sign the ballot envelope. Elections officials then compare the signature on the ballot to the one on file to ensure the voter is who they say they are. If the signature doesn’t match, the vote isn’t counted. This is a normal part of election safeguards, in line with how most states verify absentee ballots, and generally results in thousands of ballots being routinely disqualified. In 2016, for example, 2,663 Arizona ballots were rejected because of a signature discrepancy.

But SB1241 takes this normal part of election security and dramatically heightens the stakes. Unless the voter actively contacts the elections office to fix a signature error, he or she would automatically and in all cases have their “ballot affidavit and related materials” referred to law enforcement. Shockingly, this means law enforcement could have access not only to the signed envelope, but also potentially the secret ballot itself, opening the possibility that investigation decisions may be informed by who the person voted for. No other state has such a provision.

This presumption of criminality, regardless of the intentions behind the bill, is disturbing, dangerously misguided, and will fall on some of Arizona’s most vulnerable voters. Signature verification is an imprecise process that balances attention to detail with the tendency of human handwriting to change over time—or of a careless signature to smudge, wobble, or warp.

*snip*

[madaboutharry]

1. The goal is to create a fear of voting.

Young people, elderly people, uneducated people, naturalized citizens for whom English is a second language, people with disabilities.....the list is long. These are the people republicans intentionally seek to discourage and keep from voting.

Republicans hate Democracy.

[blm]

2. Republican voters don't get Parkinson's disease?

Republicans are immune to hand tremors?

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. If they really meant it, they should start with themselves! n/t

[SWBTATTReg]

4. Why don't they just put anybody that votes right into jail? No trial, no defense, etc., kind of...

like 'do not pass GO', 'do not collect $200 dollars', etc.

This ballot security issue of using signatures is an unfair, sneaky way of states / repugs stealing votes by disqualifying them. Elderly signatures comes to mind quickly, how much does one's signature change as one gets older, their hands get shaky, etc.