Early ballot ban would hit district of sponsor

Democrats suspect state Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita’s proposal to ban voters from dropping off their early ballots on Election Day is yet another voter suppression act.

Of course her bill is yet another voter suppression act.

But I’m guessing even Ugenti-Rita might be surprised at whose votes she’s proposing to suppress.

It seems four of the five legislative districts that would be most impacted by Ugenti-Rita’s plan are Republican strongholds.

One of those is Ugenti-Rita’s own district.

Why, you might ask, would the Scottsdale Republican want to bar 12,093 of her own constituents from voting in the way they find most convenient?

Why would she want to put additional restrictions on 228,052 Arizona voters — or nearly 10 percent of all those who cast ballots in November?

Well, Republicans have been smarting since November when election night results had their candidates

winning most statewide offices ... only to see several of those jobs go to Democrats a week later, once all the early ballots were counted.

Thus comes Senate Bill 1046, barring voters from dropping off their early ballots at the polls. Voters who don’t mail in their ballots in time still could go to the polls, stand in line and cast a provisional ballot.

Or, just as likely, not bother. Ugenti-Rita recently told the Senate Judiciary Committee that the mail-in requirement would speed up the vote counting process and provide election results more quickly.

Never mind that county elections officials say that’s just not true.

They recently told the Senate Judiciary Committee that it didn’t take any longer to finish tallying votes in November than it did in most other recent elections. But in this case, we noticed because so many of the races were close.

There is, however, one way in which Ugenti-Rita’s bill might speed vote counts.

“It might save time by reducing turnout,” Yavapai County Recorder Leslie Hoffman told the panel during a Jan. 24 hearing on the bill.

Sen. Eddie Farnsworth called that an “unfounded accusation” and the committee approved the bill on a 4-3 partyline vote.

It now awaits a vote of the full Senate.

Generally, when our leaders set out to “reform” election laws, those reforms have mostly involved making it more difficult for minority voters.

I wonder if any of our leaders have checked to see who will most be impacted by Ugenti-Rita’s bill.

Arizona Mirror’s Jeremy Duda did. Turns out the five districts most affected are four Republican-dominated districts and one competitive district that in recent years has swung to Democrats.

District 12 — Farnsworth’s home turf — would be hit hardest. In all, 17,318 Gilbert voters dropped off their early ballots on Election Day in November.

In District 18, a Chandler-Ahwatukee district now represented by Democrats, 13,622 voters brought their early ballots to the polls.

In Mesa’s District 25, it was 12,409 voters and in northeast Phoenix’s District 15, 12,310 voters.

Then, there are those 12,093 voters in Ugenti-Rita’s Scottsdale district who no longer would be able to drop off their early ballots if her bill becomes law.

No longer could they hold onto those ballots, waiting to see if last-minute developments change their minds.

No longer could they drop off those ballots at an early voting center or at the polls, bypassing the lines.

And to be realistic, no longer would some of them bother to vote.

Do you think Ugenti-Rita knows that own constituents will be among those most inconvenienced by her bill — one that county elections officials say won’t help?

More importantly, do you think her constituents know it? Reach Robert sat laurie. roberts@ ari zonarepublic.com.