John Fillmore
By Howard Fischer | Arizona Capitol Times
A Republican lawmaker is finally going to get a chance to try to sell colleagues on his idea of killing early voting and requiring all ballots to be hand counted.
Sen. Kelly Townsend, R-Apache Junction, agreed to allow Rep. John Fillmore, also a Republican from Apache Junction, to use a procedural maneuver to put the idea up for a vote Monday in the Senate Government Committee, which she chairs.
It is identical to a bill he introduced earlier this year.
But Fillmore never got a hearing after House Speaker Rusty Bowers, R-Mesa, put the kibosh on the whole idea by assigning his bill to an unprecedented 12 committees instead of the normal one or two. That assured there was no way for it to ever move forward.
“I think he didn’t get a fair shake in the House,” Townsend told Capitol Media Services. “So I’ll let him have it heard in the Senate.”
The procedure being used bypasses the need for any House hearings. That’s because it’s being attached to an unrelated measure which already has been approved there.
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