Mary Jo Pitzl

The Republic | azcentral.com

House Bill 2023 revives a debate the Legislature has been having since 2013

In what has become an annual debate at the Arizona Legislature, a committee Monday approved a bill that would make it a crime to return another voter's ballot to elections offices.

House Bill 2023 revives arguments that have roiled the Legislature since 2013. Although popular with the majority Republicans, the measure has failed due to quirks in timing.

This year, with a presidential election and the prospect of larger voter turnout looming, supporters are determined to get the provision in law and opponents are reviving arguments to defeat it.

Monday's hearing included more than two hours of debate over the measure, which would make it a Class 6 felony if any person knowingly picked up another person's ballot. A Class 6 felony is punishable by up to one year in prison. It passed 4-2 on a party-line vote, with Republicans in support and Democrats opposed.

Supporters, such as bill sponsor Rep. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, R-Scottsdale, and Secretary of State Michele Reagan, say the bill is needed to protect the vote.

"Whether it's two (ballots) or 20, it's a bad practice," Ugenti-Rita said. "I don't believe we should be in the practice of collecting any ballots."

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However, the bill's exceptions allow certain groups to do just that: family members, people who live in the same house, caregivers and postal workers can return others' ballots to elections offices. Ugenti-Rita said those are common-sense considerations and noted that the Democrats who oppose the bill don't object to allowing these groups to collect ballots.

On the other side, Democrats say it's an election-year ploy to prevent voters, many of them first-time voters, from having their ballots counted.

“Let’s call it for what it is: This is voter suppression,” Rep. Jonathan Larkin, D-Glendale, said.

State GOP Chairman Robert Graham sat through the lengthy debate. He had informed people attending the party's annual convention over the weekend of the hearing, and urged them to attend. Several did, including representatives of racial minorities, such as Latinos and Asian-Pacific Islanders.

Graham disputed the notion the bill would suppress the vote, echoing the many speakers who said it is the voter's obligation to ensure their ballot gets back to elections headquarters to be counted. The 30-day window for voters to return their vote-by-mail ballots gives people ample time to get their ballot in without relying on activist groups to do it for them, he said, adding most Arizonans vote by mail.

Debate centered around whether the legislation was needed, repeating a theme from past years that the legislation is a solution in search of a problem.

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Democrats pushed for examples of fraud, but got no concrete examples.

"Where’s the proof?" asked Rep. Ken Clark, D-Phoenix, “We have a lot of hearsay.”

That hearsay includes stories of people masquerading as elections officials, knocking on doors and asking to take voters' ballots. Others said the transparency of the ballot envelope makes it easy for a collector to see how a given ballot is marked and then decide whether to toss it if the vote is not in line with the collector's preferences.

(The Arizona Republic in 2014 held up a Maricopa County envelope to the light and, depending on how the ballot was folded, could see one office on the ballot.)

Former Phoenix Councilman Michael Johnson said he heard a story during his 2014 run for Maricopa County supervisor about a voter who was solicited to turn his ballot over to a man who knocked on his door. The voter did not and was unable to get information on the person who was asking for his ballot, Johnson told the committee.

For Rep. J.D. Mesnard, R-Chandler, it doesn't really matter if fraud has occurred: People believe it does. That belief erodes faith in the electoral system, which makes the bill a step toward restoring voter confidence, he said.

Rep. Lisa Otondo, D-Yuma, made a plea on behalf of rural voters. Many of these voters don't get mail delivered to their house, but have to travel to a post office to pick up their mail, she said. That makes it harder to return a mail-in ballot, since there's no pickup at their residence, she said. That's why having a friend or even a party official offer to return the ballot is a sensible solution, not a crime, she said.

“It’s not done to manipulate an election but to help people," Otondo said.

The bill will next be heard by the House Rules Committee before going before the full House of Representatives for a vote.

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com and follow her on Twitter @maryjpitzl.