Arizona Legislature revives thwarted elections bills

Two years ago, Arizona lawmakers passed a package of election changes that they said would reduce voter fraud and streamline the process. Critics said the proposals smacked of voter suppression and blocked the effort by referring the legislation to the ballot.

Lawmakers backed down. They repealed their work, avoiding a potential rebuke from voters.

Now, piece by piece, the 2015 Legislature is restoring its original changes.

On Wednesday, a House panel resurrected what is arguably the most controversial piece of the 2013 bill, severely narrowing who can return a voter's early ballot and making any violations a low-level felony.

Senate Bill 1339 passed the House Appropriations Committee on a party-line vote, with Republicans in support and Democrats opposed.

Arguments during more than an hour of testimony were a re-run of the debate from two years ago.

The same sense of déjà vu is accompanying other election-related bills advancing in the Legislature this year, as lawmakers vote on legislation that repeats individual parts of the 2013 election package. They range from tighter requirements for citizen initiatives to higher signature requirements for minor parties to qualify their candidates for the ballot.

"It's clear lawmakers weren't sincere when they repealed (HB) 2305," said Sam Wercinski, executive director of the Arizona Advocacy Network, referring to the 2013 legislation. "It shows what their true intent is: trying to create new barriers and making it harder to vote."

But the legislators supporting this year's crop of elections bills said they never promised not to adopt individual parts of the 2013 legislation, only that they wouldn't put a multi-piece package in front of voters.

Last week, the House Elections Committee killed a bill barring individuals and groups from collecting ballots and returning them to elections officials or dropping them off at the polls, with certain exceptions.

But Sen. Don Shooter, R-Yuma, revived it with SB 1339, saying something has to be done to stop what he and other critics of the practice call "ballot harvesting."

"We don't want people playing with our ballots," Shooter told the Appropriations Committee.

When pressed for examples of such activity, all Shooter could offer was an unsubstantiated anecdote about people popping ballots into a microwave with a bowl of water, steaming them open and reviewing the contents. If the vote isn't agreeable to the person who "harvested" the ballot, it's tossed, he said.

Democrats said there was no evidence of such activity, adding that offering to return ballots for voters is a service, not fraud.

House Minority Leader Eric Meyer, D-Paradise Valley, said his campaign volunteers have done the very activity the bill would ban, and questioned why lawmakers would want to make them criminals.

"We pick up their ballots and take them to the county recorder's office or the polling place," Meyer said. "And I'm not using a microwave."

The bill would still allow Meyer, as a candidate, to return ballots. But his volunteers could not.

It makes exceptions for the family or household members, or caregivers of any voter who wants to hand off his or her ballot. It also allows a candidate's spouse to return other voters' ballots.

Eric Spencer, the state election director in the Secretary of State's office, said it even contains a "good Samaritan" exception, allowing a person who does not fall into any of the exempt categories to return up to two early ballots without risking a Class 6 felony.

But Rep. Lela Alston, D-Phoenix, she remained unconvinced why such a ban is needed.

"This is way over the top for something we have no evidence of ever happening," she said. "It is more than an inconvenience for my friends who are 80 and 90 years old."

The bill now advances to the full House.

Meanwhile, other elections-related bills are nearing a final vote. They include:

■ A requirement that language in a citizen's initiative, referendum or recall petition have "strict compliance" with the law or be rejected. HB 2407 is awaiting a vote from the full Senate after getting House approval. In the past, courts have used a less-stringent standard, allowing that as long as the voter intent is clear, strict compliance is not necessary.

■ Expanding the pool of "qualified voters" who can sign a candidate's nominating petition to include independents as well as members of parties that do not have recognized ballot status. This increases the signature requirement for third-party candidates, such as Libertarians, and would likely make it harder for them to qualify for the ballot. HB 2608 has won House approval and is awaiting a Senate vote.

■ Reducing by one day the window of time for voters to request a mail-in ballot, as well as the time for them to return that ballot. HB 1158 is also awaiting a Senate vote. Wercinski said that although a one-day shift seems inconsequential, many voters already have their mail-in ballots rejected because they arrive at elections offices too late. A survey his group did after the 2014 election found that 2,837 voters in four counties did not have their ballots counted for that reason.

Reach the reporter at maryjo.pitzl@arizonarepublic.com or at 602-444-8963.