Do you vote early? You could lose that right under bill OK'ed by Arizona Senate panel

PHOENIX — Many of the 2.4 million Arizonans who voted early last election could lose that right under legislation approved Monday by a Senate panel.

Senate Bill 1404 would scrap longstanding law that allows any registered voter to request a ballot by mail, fill it out at home and then either mail it back or drop it off on Election Day at a polling place. Instead, that right would be reserved for only those who meet certain conditions.

Sen. David Gowan, R-Sierra Vista, sponsor of the bill, said his interest is ensuring that voters don’t make premature decisions.

“Sometimes there’s a lot of information missing between, how many, a week, two weeks, three weeks, a month out, when somebody could early vote by mail to that point when we vote on the first Tuesday in November,’’ he said. “You’re going to miss a lot of information that’s fed to you.’’

Gowan said his bill would resolve that by requiring most of the people who now vote early to instead go to the polls on Election Day.

The measure, advanced by a 5-3 party-line vote in the Republican-controlled Senate Government Committee, now needs a vote of the full Senate.

Gowan is willing to allow exceptions.

One is for people who would be absent from their precinct on Election Day. Others who would be entitled to keep getting early ballots include those who are at least 65, live at least 15 miles from the polling place, have religious reasons against going to the polls, or are physically unable to get there.

Jennifer Marson, executive director of the Arizona Association of Counties, told lawmakers she cannot say how many early voters would still qualify if Gowan’s bill were to become law.

Sen. Sally Ann Gonzales, D-Tucson, said that should concern lawmakers of both parties. She said the record shows there were more early votes from Republicans last time than Democrats.

Lawmakers need to think carefully before taking that opportunity away from voters, said Sen. Martin Quezada, D-Glendale.

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“We gave them the choice,’’ Quezada said. “They chose to use that option. They chose it because it is a safe and reliable and secure choice.’’

The other side of the equation, he said, is: “The numbers of people who will not vote because of this will be tremendous.”

Quezada also dismissed Gowan’s contention that those who choose to vote early are denying themselves information.

Personally, he said he gets an early ballot but hangs onto it until the last possible moment to see if there are late-breaking developments. Quezada said, though, he still wants to get the ballot early and presumes others feel the same way.

But Sen. Wendy Rogers, R-Flagstaff, said she sides with those who find problems with the whole concept of early voting.

“The mail-in voting is something that’s convenient,’’ she said. “But it’s been grossly abused.’’

Rogers said it creates opportunities for fraudulent ballots that effectively can cancel legitimate ones.

“I, as an American, don’t want my vote canceled,’’ she said. “That is disenfranchisement.’’

Others who spoke before the panel argued the 2020 election showed there are pressing reasons to curb the process — despite the facts that every lawsuit challenging the election returns has been thrown out of court, and the Senate-ordered audit of Maricopa County’s returns failed to produce any evidence of fraud.

“What we did have was a lot of counterfeit ballots,’’ insisted Gail Golec, a Republican candidate for Maricopa County supervisor. She cited a report by Jovan Hutton Pulitzer, who was involved in the largely discredited Senate-ordered audit of the election returns, who claims to have technology to be able to spot fake ballots.

Golec also said she has four hours of “eyewitness testimony of people who saw batches and batches of Biden ballots in a row.’’ She also claimed there are “algorithms’’ of voting patterns that show irregularities.