Newsweek: ARIZONA BILL THAT COULD PREVENT 200,000 VOTERS FROM CASTING MAIL-IN BALLOTS PASSES HOUSE COMMITTEE

An Arizona House committee advanced legislation on Tuesday that would prevent voters from being able to cast early mail-in ballots.

The House Elections Committee passed the bill through a party vote, with Republicans approving the measure and Democrats rejecting it. The legislation, Senate Bill 1188, has already been passed in the Senate and would go to the governor if the whole Republican-controlled House approves it.

The legislation would remove voters from the Permanent Early Voting List if they don’t cast a vote for two election cycles, The Arizona Republic reported. Voters would still be able to cast ballots at the polls. About 75 percent of the state’s voters cast mail-in ballots, the outlet said. …

The bill was introduced in the state Senate in January, more than seven months after the Supreme Court issued a decision in Husted v. A. Philip Randolph Institute. The case revolved around the process Ohio used to regulate its voter rolls. …

David Vance, the National Media Strategist at government watchdog organization Common Cause, told Newsweek that the Husted decision had enabled state legislatures to use purges of rolls to suppress voters.

“In greenlighting Ohio’s voter roll purges, the Husted ruling has inspired a variety of methods to remove voters from the polls for partisan gain,” he said. “The Arizona bill is just the latest example of voter suppression tactics stemming from the Husted decision. It appears to be nothing more than another attempt by politicians to dictate who will vote and who won’t for their own advantage. We should be looking for ways to get more Americans to vote, not making it more difficult for those that do vote to cast their ballots.”