A measure on Arizona’s ballot in November could require more stringent voter identification, both at the polls and via mail-in ballots – the primary way people in the state vote.
Opponents of Proposition 309 warn it could disenfranchise voters, making them susceptible to identity fraud and taking longer to count ballots. But the measure has the backing of Arizona GOP heavyweights and the state party itself, and it comes on the heels of nonstop, unfounded claims of 2020 election fraud by Republicans here.
It does not, however, have the support of county recorders, the elected officials who run early voting in Arizona’s counties. The Arizona Association of County Recorders recently released a letter opposing the measure, saying it “addresses a nonexistent problem, it imposes new burdens on voters, it delays tabulation results, it jeopardizes voter data privacy and it will likely disenfranchise thousands of voters”.
In particular, voting by mail has been the target of many election conspiracies, from ballot stuffing by “mules” to people voting mailed ballots that aren’t their own. While there were a few cases of people voting for their dead parents, and two instances of ballot collection in the August 2020 primary, there is no evidence of widespread fraud in Arizona’s vote-by-mail system.
And while voting by mail was a new practice in many states during the pandemic, Arizona’s early, no-excuse mail-in voting has been in place for three decades. The strong majority of both parties vote by mail, though Democrats are now more likely to vote by mail than Republicans, a shift in recent years.
Sent to the ballot by the Republican-controlled Arizona legislature, the measure’s biggest changes would apply to voters who cast ballots by mail. Now, they return their ballots alongside a signature, the date and their phone number, in case their signature requires further verification.
The measure would add additional identification, including a date of birth and an ID number of some kind – either an Arizona driver’s license number, a voter registration number or the last four digits of a social security number.
“Given the number of people that vote this way, it seems like we should have something a little more akin to what’s required of voters to actually vote in person, where you can see them at the polls,” said the measure’s sponsor, Republican Arizona senator JD Mesnard.
But there would also be changes for in-person voters. State law now allows voters at the polls to show a photo ID with a current address, a photo ID plus other documentation that shows the voter’s current address, or two documents (like a utility bill and bank statement) with the person’s name and current address. The proposition would remove from law the two-document option. People who don’t have a photo ID would be able to get a non-operating license from the state free of charge.
Pinny Sheoran, the president of the League of Women Voters of Arizona, which opposes the measure, said it’s based on false pretenses of fraud. And the way the measure has been promoted, it makes it seem like Arizona doesn’t have voter ID laws, which it already does.
The measure will make voting more difficult, particularly for tribal voters, students, people who recently voted or rural voters without standard addresses, she said. Tribal nations, in some instances, don’t have photos or addresses on their IDs, she noted. And the requirements for mailed ballots expose personal information. Plus, she added, people often transpose numbers when writing dates or ID numbers, meaning their ballots could be thrown out.
“Do you think that voters in one party are the ones who are more likely to transpose numbers than other members of another party? Absolutely not. We are humans, we make mistakes,” Sheoran said.
All of the new provisions add more work for elections officials, too, which will delay election results and cost money, she said. Indeed, the recorders estimate the additional steps “will quadruple the amount of time needed to verify the identity of each early vote”, and thus add to the counting process and extend results.
The recorders’ letter was initially posted on Maricopa county’s website, which then led the Maricopa county recorder, Stephen Richer, to get hit with a complaint of using a taxpayer-funded website for electioneering, so it was removed from the site.
Mesnard countered claims over identity fraud with the idea that there must be some kind of privacy measures taken by counties to protect the ballot, like a second envelope or privacy flap. And he said he has “no direct observation” of voter fraud that this measure could prevent, he said the concerns people have over election security cannot be dismissed.
“You need to make sure you have a system that instills confidence,” Mesnard said. “And you’re always going to be walking the line of voter access and security. But I do remind people that voting by mail is not your right – it is a convenience. Voting is a right, but the idea of voting by mail is not.”
