For shame, legislator Townsend, let people speak

On Tuesday, people waited seven hours to express their opinions on proposed changes to Arizona’s elections laws, only to be denied the right to speak.

It was the second time in a week that our lofty leaders have cut off citizens wishing to speak. This, because they just didn’t like what those citizens had to say.

Did I miss the part where the state Capitol became a First Amendmentfree zone?

Last week, it was Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Eddie Farnsworth, who abruptly cut off all testimony about a bill aimed at enshrining the state’s sanctuary city ban in the state Constitution.

Hugo Polanco, a lobbyist with Living United for Change in Arizona, said the bill represented “a return to the racism, divisiveness and hate” of Senate Bill 1070, prompting Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, to warn him not to be “vitriolic.”

When Polanco again asked the committee to “reject this racist, divisive and hateful” bill, Farnsworth slammed down his gavel and announced they would hear no more from the public.

When LUCHA director Alejandra Gomez stepped up to the dais to speak, she and other members of the group were threatened with arrest if they didn’t leave.

“Let the people speak,” the crowd chanted.

Or not, as it turns out. The public was silenced and the bill was passed on a party line vote.

Fast forward to Tuesday’s House Elections Committee, where Chairwoman Kelly Townsend announced she wasn’t going to stand for a long hearing on a controversial elections bill — one she moved from second on the packed agenda to dead last despite the sizable crowd that showed up to speak.

Maybe because of the sizable crowd that showed up to speak.

Townsend says her bill is all about stopping voter fraud. Opponents believe it’s about suppressing the Latino vote.

Among other things, opponents say House Bill 2304 would stop voters from taking a translator of their choosing to voting booths. It also would require regular checks of voter registration records against jury duty lists and allow the state to contract with ICE to check voters’ citizenship status.

The committee had heard from just two people – one of them a county elections worker – when it was LUCHA’s Randy Perez’s turn to speak.

Perez testified that many in the Latino community were concerned about the bill “especially in the broader context of what’s happening this week and last week with the Legislature along with the offensive that’s hap

pening with President Trump in the White House against immigrants, new Americans and ...”

“Stay to the bill,” Townsend interrupted.

Perez said the process set out for the meeting along with posting DPS officers in the hallway is “so indicative of the process that is laid out in this bill because just like that it establishes a presumption that people of color are … undergoing illegal or illicit activity when other folks are not.”

“We’re going to strike that,” Townsend cut in. “That’s your one warning.”

Sen. Warren Petersen added, “What set the precedent for this meeting was the behavior of certain people ... you and others like you are disrespectful to the process.”

“Point of order, there is a factual dispute over who actually started that dispute,” Rep. Diego Rodriguez interjected, referring to the Senate Judiciary dust-up.

“So we’re going to pause,” Townsend said. “I’m going to speak.”

As Perez tried to cut in, she slammed down the gavel, declared a recess, ordered Perez to leave and ended public testimony.

“Let record show that I did not recess because anybody was brown,” she said. “I did not cut off testimony because anyone was brown. Or said anything other than when I called a recess it’s not respected. We are going to move the bill. We’re not going to have any more testimony.”

“Nope,” she said, as understandably frustrated people in the audience objected. “Nope.”

Later, in explaining her vote, Townsend angrily lectured the audience, saying it’s their own fault they didn’t get to speak.

“The meeting devolved into chaos,” she said. “People stopped recognizing the authority of the chair and at that point is when I recessed to try and maintain decorum and that did not happen. It was impossible because of the behavior of the audience.”

The meeting did devolve into chaos but only after Townsend’s abrupt silencing of opponents to her bill.

Some of them got the full-on Townsend treatment.

“Excuse me, leave the room. Leave the room now. Leave the room,” she said, as more and more people began to complain.

“Where is DPS? Get out of this audience right now. Leave the room. You will not disrespect the chair in this room …” And on and on, she went.

“Get out. Out.

“It’s about decorum, rules and I will not lose control.”

Says the woman who totally lost control.

Those people, some of them new citizens, didn’t come to disrupt Townsend’s hearing. They came to be heard. They waited nearly seven hours to be heard.

Even if it was only for two minutes of Townsend’s oh-so-valuable time, they had that right.

For shame, Rep. Townsend.

Reach columnist Laurie Roberts at laurie.roberts@arizonarepublic.com.

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