About 89% of Arizona voters cast ballots early, mostly by mail, in the 2020 general election. But now, some Republicans in the state are doggedly attempting to dismantle the system their party helped create.
BY: JEN FIFIELD/VOTEBEAT
Republicans made Arizona an early vote-by-mail innovator in 1991, enacting one of the first laws in the country permitting voters to send in a mail ballot early without an excuse. The state then doubled down, setting up a system in 2007 for voters who wanted to automatically and permanently get ballots in the mail.
The method has become widely popular in the state, with about 89% of Arizona voters casting ballots early, mostly by mail, in the 2020 general election. But now, some Republicans in the state are doggedly attempting to dismantle the system their party helped create.
There’s the ongoing court case filed by the Arizona Republican Party challenging the constitutionality of no-excuse mail-in voting. There’s the new law and ballot referendum backed by Republicans in the Legislature and passed on party-line votes that intend to limit or restrict voting by mail. And there are calls for state lawmakers to take a final vote on an extreme and sweeping measure that would, among other things, eliminate all early voting in the state.
On Monday, a Mohave County Superior Court judge ruled against the Arizona Republican Party on a related court case, stating that the state’s vote-by-mail system is constitutional.
But Arizona voters should not expect the fight to end.
Arizona Republican Party Chairwoman Kelli Ward said on far-right news outlet Real America’s Voice on Monday that the party is “probably going to be appealing to a higher court.” If appealed, the next stop would be the state’s Court of Appeals or Supreme Court.
The efforts are fueled by inaccurate claims promoted by former President Donald Trump: That voting by mail is not secure and mail-in voter fraud caused his 2020 loss to President Joe Biden. Multiple court cases and investigations in Arizona and across the country failed to find any evidence of widespread voter fraud in 2020, and Republican election officials here and elsewhere have repeatedly defended the security of mail-in voting and the integrity of the election.
The decades-long efforts to expand vote-by-mail in Arizona were bipartisan.
In an interview, former Maricopa County Recorder Helen Purcell, a Republican who was in office when no-excuse mail voting became legal, told Votebeat that voters themselves pushed the state to make voting by mail easier, and Republicans encouraged the system from the start. Former Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican who was a state senator at the time the Legislature voted to approve the no-excuse mail voting system, told Votebeat she’s “very proud” of what her party helped create.
