The Arizona Capitol prior to its copper dome being replaced./Dept. of Administration
By Ray Stern | Arizona Republic
Conspiracy theories were handed the spotlight at the Arizona Capitol on Monday, as a Senate committee heard testimony on election-related bills sponsored by some of the state’s leading 2020 election deniers.
After about four hours of discussion, seven of those bills passed out of the Senate Government Committee. All were partisan votes, backed by Republicans.
The action comes after a year of continued frustration for many Republicans who, despite a lack of real evidence, believe fraud occurred in the 2020 presidential election. Now, the Legislature could pass a number of bills that largely aim to appease them.
Several of the proposals could impede some people from voting, including one that passed the committee on Monday to ban all mail voting in city and school elections.
Sen. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, the chair of the committee, described the motive for the bills as simply to increase voter confidence. When election procedures are “loosey-goosey,” that “stirs the imagination of the voter. We want to tighten it up.”
But Democrats worry that partisan extremists are making law from unproven allegations of voter fraud in order to thwart them at the polls. Before the hearing began, 12 local liberal groups including Progress Arizona and Mi Familia Vota released a joint letter opposing the bills and urging their partners to skip the hearing in-person.
“This is the Cyber Ninjas-circus elevated to the legislative level,” said Alex Gulotta of All Voting Is Local Arizona, referring to the company contracted by the Senate to conduct the Senate’s partisan review of the Maricopa County election.
“We want to have a serious conversation about elections and voting, and that’s not what this is.”
What bills passed the committee
Seats in the hearing room at the Senate building were packed with supporters and opponents of the bills, though unmasked supporters made up the majority.
The panel included four of the Legislature’s most ardent election conspiracy advocates and supporters of the partisan audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County: Republican Sens. Townsend, Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, Warren Petersen, R-Gilbert and Sonny Borrelli, R-Lake Havasu City.
They voted for the measures, while the Democrats, Sens. Theresa Hatathlie, D-Coalmine, Sally Ann Gonzalez, D-Tucson, and Martín Quezada, D-Glendale, were opposed.
The proposals that passed are:
