Still fuming over the loss of a Senate seat in 2018, the Republican-run Arizona Legislature has approved a bill to block people – or certain people anyway – from voting in 2020.

This time, by cracking down on emergencies.

Maybe you recall those emergency voting centers that sent the state Republican Party into a fit of apoplexy last fall, prompting the then-chairman of the state GOP to cry that the fix was in.

Maricopa County Elections Director Adrian Fontes opened five emergency voting centers on the three days before the Nov. 6 election.

While early voting ends at 5 p.m. on the Friday before the election, state law allows emergency voting after that when “unforeseen circumstances” would prevent a voter from getting to the polls on Election Day.

Fontes, unlike his predecessor, made it easy for people who had those “unforeseen” circumstances” to vote. He opened voting centers in Mesa, Scottsdale, Avondale and Tolleson in addition to the recorder’s office in downtown Phoenix.

That – along with Fontes’ decision to allow early voters who dropped off ballots on Election Day to later verify that their questioned signatures were valid rather than tossing out those ballots – prompted then-state GOP Chairman Jonathan Lines to go ballistic.

'Such a man cannot be trusted'

“Adrian Fontes intentionally put himself above the law and the judicial process,” Lines said, at the time “Such a man cannot be trusted to administer elections in Arizona.”

The nerve of that guy, making it easier for eligible voters to vote.

So now comes the Legislature to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

Senate Bill 1090 would impose new restrictions on emergency voting centers. Among other things, the bill would make it a felony to fake an emergency in order to cast a ballot.

A felony? Really?

Under the bill, voters would be required to “sign a statement under penalty of perjury that states that the person is experiencing or experienced an emergency after 5 p.m. on the Friday preceding the election and before 5 p.m. on the Monday immediately preceding the election that would prevent the person from voting at the polls.”

Faking an emergency would be a class 4 felony that could you put you in prison for up to three years.

Goodness.

The bill also requires that the Board of Supervisors (read: the Republicans who control Maricopa County's board) select locations for emergency voting centers rather than the county recorder who oversees elections (read: the Democrat who now holds the office in Maricopa County).

This, because Republicans suspected that Fontes was trying to rig the election for Democrat Kyrsten Sinema.

In all, 2,788 voters cast ballots at the five emergency voting centers – not even two-tenths of a percent of the 1.4 million Maricopa County voters who cast ballots in the Senate race. Sinema defeated Republican Martha McSally by 60,256 votes in Maricopa County.

Clearly, the election must’ve been stolen, thus the need for SB 1090.

Will there be 'emergency' police?

Last week, the Legislature finished work on the bill and shipped it up to Gov. Doug Ducey.

Who will surely sign it, hoping to scare away voters for fear of going to prison if their emergency doesn’t seem sufficiently dire.

How our leaders will determine that people are faking an emergency in order to vote is unclear. Why it would matter is equally unclear.

Why does it matter whether people vote on a Sunday or on a Tuesday, as long as they vote only once?

Unless, that is, you’d rather they not vote at all.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.