Requests that federal observers be sent from Maricopa County to review ballots
As the controversial scrutiny of ballots cast during the 2020 election in Maricopa County continues, calls for greater transparency into the scrutiny process will continue.
PHOENIX (AP) – – Arizona voters who forgot to sign their absentee ballot would have to resolve the issue by 7:00 p.m. on Election Day, under laws approved by the House Republicans on April 29.
The move codifies the rules of the 2020 election in state law and blocks a five-day post-election hardening period that Secretary of State Katie Hobbs attempted unsuccessfully to resolve a lawsuit filed by the Navajo Nation. Before 2020, the guidelines for dealing with missing signatures differed from state to state.
Voting proxies condemned the legislation and called on Governor Doug Ducey to veto it.
The measure would require county electoral officials to notify voters who do not sign their ballot papers. However, critics say those who give it back on election day or just before it would not have time to fix the problem. Voters who signed their ballot papers but were refused to sign because it did not exactly match the one on the file would have five days after the election to resolve the issue.
Jasmine Blackwater-Nygren MP, a Democrat representing the Navajo nation, said the move will have a particularly large impact on voters whose first language is not English, such as those who speak mostly Navajo.
Globe Republican MP David Cook said there was nothing wrong with expecting people to sign their ballots by the end of the voting period.
“If you can’t follow instructions and sign an affidavit under penalty of perjury, your ballot shouldn’t have been counted,” Cook said.
The measure was passed by the Senate earlier this year and then stalled in the House. It was revived and sent to Ducey on Thursday as all electoral laws in the Senate remain pending due to disagreements among Republicans.
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