Arizona Governor Signs Two More Suppressive Bills
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) has signed into law two bills relating to voter registration. He signed House Bill 2243 into law earlier this week and another voting bill, Senate Bill 1260, in June. Both laws now make it easier for county officials to cancel voter registrations.
H.B. 2243 requires county recorders to cancel a voter’s registration if they receive information that a voter is not qualified to vote. This law is identical to House Bill 2617, which Ducey vetoed earlier this year because the requirement “is vague and lacks any guidance for how a county recorder would confirm” a voter’s qualifications. When vetoing this bill, he also raised the possibility that “bad actors” could “seek to falsely allege a voter is not a qualified elector.” Ducey has not explained why he changed his mind in signing H.B. 2243 into law.
Similarly, S.B. 1260 requires county recorders to cancel a voter’s registration if they receive confirmation that a voter has registered to vote in another Arizona county. The law also creates a process to remove voters who may have moved from Arizona’s permanent vote-by-mail list and makes it a crime to forward a mail-in ballot to a voter who may be registered in another state. Both laws go into effect this September.