Before an individual is removed from an early voting list, the person must receive notice from the county registrar’s office to confirm that they still live at the listed address and if they still want to receive a ballot. receive.

If the voter lives at that address and would like to continue receiving ballots, they can send back a notice requesting that they continue to send early ballots.

The proposed bill, an update to Senate Bill 1485 passed by the previous Congress, would remove people from the early voting list if the individual did not vote in two consecutive election cycles. House Bill 2415, if passed, will begin after the 2024 election.

Biagiucci said the bill would not disqualify an individual from voting if they were removed from the voter roll or if no notice was sent. Individuals who do not reply to will be expelled.

“This does not exclude you from the ballot list at all,” Biagiucci said. “If you miss the election twice, we will simply send you a notice.

Under the bill, county registrar “can” also contact voters by email or phone. Opponents, however, said ‘may’ is not ‘necessary’ and therefore may not be an option for all individuals. ‘ said Biagiucci.

Senator Ken Bennett (District R-1) voted in favor of the bill, but was concerned that it would reduce the number of election cycles. His concerns centered on individuals unable to participate in local elections, where voter turnout has historically been low.

He said he would support the bill if one election cycle was statewide and federal only, not local.

“I’m worried about removing someone from the AEVL[valid early voting list]because they didn’t run in the local elections,” Bennett said.

Biagiucci said he was drafting an amendment to address concerns about including only major state and federal elections. “I think it would be prudent to clarify that this should apply to primaries and general elections in the regular election cycle, not to these special elections, which are held at random,” Biasiuchi said. .

He said he didn’t know how many people would be affected if the bill became law.But he said there would be plenty of opportunities to make sure people were still at their current addresses. rice field.

Senator Anna Hernandez (D-24th) said about 620,000 voters would be on the active early voting list, based on estimates she gave to the commission if the law went into effect in the 2022 cycle. said to be removed from

“There’s a disconnect and the goal is ‘How do I clean this up?’ This is the easiest and cleanest way to do this,” said Biasiucci.

Senator Priya Sundareshian (District D, 18) asked Biasiucci why Congress needs to tighten the timeline even more when previous bills haven’t had a chance to make a full impact. Biagiucci said it would take too long.

“I believe this is a faster and more efficient method,” says Biasiucci.

Ben Scheel of Opportunity Arizona said the organization opposes the bill because voters have already notified the county registrar that they want to vote by mail. He also said paper notices could be overlooked by mail, and unless it’s a major election, there could be no early voting.

“I think voters let their county registrar know when they registered to vote,” Cher said.

Senator Sonny Borrelli (R-Lake Havasu City) spoke out and said he disagreed with Scheel’s statement, arguing that people didn’t know they signed up for early voting and those votes weren’t counted. Mr Cher said Mr Borrelli’s claims were based on conspiracy theories, to which Mr Borrelli countered and demanded that they stop calling them conspiracy theories. Sen. Wendy Rogers (Republican District 7) spoke out during a debate demanding Sen. Juan Mendes (District 8 D) give Cher a chance to speak when he was interrupted by Borelli. threatened to dismiss him.

Speaking of “conspiracy theories” is forbidden by Rogers.

The bill was supported by Republicans and opposed by Democrats, and the committee passed party policy 5-3. “This is disrespectful to democracy,” Mendez said of the bill before voting against it.

“For those who don’t use ballots, the state doesn’t have to pay to print and mail ballots,” Borrelli said. “They’re not interested, they don’t want to participate. That’s the voter’s responsibility… Voting isn’t for the lazy.”

Hernandez said he would never support laws that “support conspiracy theories.” She said the bill should not spin a narrative in Congress claiming it made elections safer while it made voting more difficult.

“Voting is a right and we need to make it more convenient for people to vote,” Hernandez said. “Life starts and working class people sometimes forget to update their addresses.”