Republican-run state Legislature shows it's afraid of Arizona voters

Mark down these dates on your calendar. Then underline them, circle them and put alerts on your phone reminding you of them:

July 24 and Oct. 23.

Those are the dates by which you must request an early ballot if you don’t already automatically get one. If you choose not to risk life and limb this year in order to exercise your constitutional right to vote.

It didn’t have to be this way.

Arizona has long allowed people to vote by mail. Since 2007, state law has allowed voters to add their names to the “Permanent Early Voting List," to have an early ballot automatically mailed to them for every statewide and county election.

Some school boards and cities routinely hold all-mail elections. Counties, however, don’t have that option.

But they should.

We need an all-mail election option

Common sense would tell you that this is not the year for crowded polling places and long lines of voters waiting to cast ballots.

Given our current coronacatastrophe, both Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and the Arizona Association of Counties asked the Republican-run Legislature for the option of moving to an all-mail vote for the Aug. 4 primary and the Nov. 3 general election.

“We need to prepare now for any eventuality," Hobbs, a Democrat, wrote in a letter to legislative leaders earlier this month.

"Before the Legislature adjourns, it is vital that we build more flexibility into the law — even if only on a temporary basis — to allow elections officials to adapt to the circumstances on the ground to best protect voters' health while also preserving the ability to exercise their right to vote."

We are, after all, living in unusual and alarming times.

Just not unusual and alarming enough for Republican leaders to make it easy for every eligible Arizonan to vote.

Not necessary? This is a pandemic

“My recommendation to the members of the Arizona Legislature is not to give counties the authority to have all-mail in elections,” Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, R-Scottsdale, who chairs the Senate Elections Committee, said via Twitter last week. “It is simply not necessary. Voters have 11 days before an election (16-542(e)) to request a ballot be mailed to them if they so desire.”

Not necessary? We are living in a global pandemic. Public health officials warn us that a million or more Americans could die if we don’t avoid person-to-person contact.

The coronavirus isn’t going away in a week or a month – or, likely, before the August and November elections.

Here we already have a system set up – one that could be employed statewide to ensure the safe and smooth exercise of democracy – and our leaders ... decide not to use it?

Lawmakers didn't even hear the bill

Oh, I know. Republicans are always suspicious of Democrats who try to expand the number of people who might cast ballots by making it easier to vote.

But surely we can all agree that all-mail balloting this year would be a good idea.

Or not, as it turns out. The Legislature wouldn’t even hear the bill before adjourning this week.

As Rep. T.J. Shope explained it to The Arizona Republic’s Andrew Oxford: “I think there's a lot of appetite on the other side to take advantage of a crisis and do things they've been trying to get done for a very long time.”

Take advantage of a crisis? Or address a crisis?

We may be living inside a disaster movie but it seems there are worst disasters to contemplate … like the disaster of making it too easy for every Arizonan to vote. 

How to get on the early voting list

If you’d like an early ballot, the deadline to make your request to the county recorder is July 24 for the primary and Oct. 23 for the general election. You can request an early primary ballot starting on July 8. Or you can ask right now to be placed on the Permanent Early Voting List.

Here’s how to get on the PEVL in Maricopa County.

Contact information for every other county is here.

You can also request to get an early ballot when you register to vote or update your voter registration at ServiceArizona.com.

Reach Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.