What’s real GOP target: Voter fraud, or turnout?

After last year’s near-record turnout, our leaders have a plan to slow the number of people who vote on Election Day.

This, by ensuring some of those people never become voters.

The Arizona House on Monday approved a bill that would make it a crime to pay someone for every person they register to vote — unless they are an employee of a political party in which case it’s A-OK.

Those who volunteer to register voters also would face heat. Failure to turn those registration forms into the county within 10 days also would be a crime, punishable by up to four months in prison.

House Bill 2616 is the brainchild of Rep. Kelly Townsend, R-Mesa, who says she is concerned that people are turning in fraudulent registration forms in order to get paid.

Indeed, Yuma County Recorder Robyn Stallworth Pouquette told the House Elections Committee last month that her office in 2016 found and rejected 344 registration forms for voters who did not exist.

“The process works, the system works,” she said. “Those individuals representing a fraudulent form are not now registered voters but that is because our staff has spent significant time and resources in processing those forms that were unnecessary and out of principle, I find it unfathomable that we would not express our concern.”

In other words, county workers did their jobs. The fake registrations were caught and presumably, the person responsible is prosecuted.

And we need to change a law that worked why?

The Yuma County elections chief did note a few instances when people would have been able to vote in the primary but could not because their registration form hadn’t been turned in quickly enough.

That, of course, should not happen. But because it apparently has happened on occasion, our leaders are

“The process works, the system works. Those individuals representing a fraudulent form are not now registered voters but that is because our staff has spent significant time and resources in processing those forms that were unnecessary and out of principle ...” Robyn Stallworth Pouquette Yuma County recorder

now ready to make criminals out of anyone who fails to get a registration in the mail within 10 days? Anyone who dares to save up a stack of registrations before turning them in would become a criminal should this bill become law.

Sounds like overkill.

Or something sneakier.

During a debate on HB 2616 on Monday, Rep. Reginald Bolding, D-Laveen, told his colleagues he believes the bill is designed to put a damper on voter registration drives and chill volunteers from registering people to vote.

“What we know is that when more people go to the ballot, when we see more individuals voting, you’ll see effects just like you saw in 2018,” he said.

2018, that would be, when 65 percent of Arizona voters cast ballots – the highest for a midterm election in 36 years – and Republicans lost a U.S. Senate seat, three statewide offices and four seats in the state House, leaving them with only a 31-29 advantage.

“Republicans know, just like Democrats know, that the more people who vote the less likely we will see an extreme Legislature that is forcing policies that don’t reflect the state of Arizona,” Bolding said.

Townsend took offense at Bolding’s comments and said she’s just trying to root out fraud.

“I cannot believe that we are arguing that we should be able to look the other way when someone commits fraud,” she said. “When someone purposely keeps back voter registration, for whatever reason, in a nefarious way.”

We shouldn’t look the other way when fraud occurs. In fact, we should do all that we can to ensure that those who are entitled to vote – and only those who are entitled to vote – can vote.

And as it turns out, there’s an easy way to do that. House Bill 2215 would automatically register you to vote when you apply for or renew your driver’s license, assuming you are eligible to vote. Same if you apply for a MVD-issued identification card.

No need for voter registration drives or innocent volunteers who might find themselves caught up in a crime or crooks who would phony up voters in order to get paid because every eligble voter already would be registered.

And isn’t that a good thing?

Curiously, that bill didn’t even rate a hearing. Meanwhile, HB 2616 – which would turn citizens in criminals and, I suspect, voters into non-voters – passed the House Monday on a party-line vote.

This, just in time for 2020.