Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy and a fundamental right upon which all our civil liberties depend.
As Arizona’s democracy has faced increasing attacks in recent years, the pillar of voting rights – the right to vote privately and securely – has stood the test of time.Arizona Constitution agree with “Voting secrecy will be preserved” Senate Bill 1324 and House Bill 2560 risk this.
A related bill, dubbed the “Voter Privacy Infringement Act” by civil rights advocates, would push Arizona to extremes by posting detailed voter data and unfiltered voting images online after critical elections leading to certification of results. outliers.
Lawmakers and Governor Katie Hobbs must reject these attacks on democracy.
The bill will list voters’ names, addresses
Transparency in the electoral process is essential to ensuring free and fair elections, but the Voter Privacy Violation Act used its false pretenses to introduce legislation .
In practice, this practice creates an intimidating voting environment by posting voters’ names, addresses, dates of birth, and images of all ballots online.
That information can then be tied to a voter’s specific constituency prior to authentication, and that information can be used to identify individual voters and create election fraud.
Arizona is already Data sharing policy Balancing transparency of the electoral process with the protection of voters and election officials.
The people of Arizona should be warned that lawmakers are increasingly supporting legislation that disrupts the electoral process. And now Secretary of State Adrian Fontes has joined them in endorsing these Miller bills.
Information can be used to identify and target voters
in an increasingly troubled landscape voter intimidationreleasing voters’ personal information along with their voting records opens the floodgates for harassment.
Malicious individuals can easily exploit this data prior to certification by cross-referencing voter information in public databases with posted ballots.
This can be especially true in smaller precincts with some anomalous votes that go against the precinct’s voting trends, or precincts with filled-in candidates.
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By publishing cast voting records that include constituency votes by all races, you can target specific areas based on how residents vote. In addition, some people inadvertently sign ballots. Posting these images without scraping them threatens a voter’s right to a secret ballot.
Extra data can slow down election verification
This is not an outrageous reality.
Between 2020 electionextremists knocked on defenseless Arizonans’ doors and demanded to know how individuals voted in the name of electoral denial. It will rationalize your efforts.
The law also impedes the election verification process by extending election contest time and providing unnecessary data that interferes with the process.Some Arizona Counties Are Already Facing Challenges proof of election by the deadline.
Extended timelines and raw data will further hinder election officials from meeting critical deadlines and give election participants more resources to manipulate the facts and spread disinformation. greatest threat We are facing our democracy now.
A similar bill in Colorado called for guardrails
Lawmakers are aware of the threat of harm associated with this law. The text includes provisions that protect election officials from liability if voters are harmed based on information they are required to disclose.
But this sets back the role of government. States are constitutionally obligated to protect the privacy and safety of voters and must not facilitate violations of these rights.
Other states have implemented voter transparency laws, with Colorado being the closest example to Arizona, but with an important difference.
Colorado continues to require counties to anonymize ballots and vote. positive step To prevent violations of secret ballots. Additionally, Colorado releases information only after election verification, preventing disinformation peddlers from interfering with the election process.
Arizona’s proposal has no guardrails to protect privacy or maintain the integrity of the election authentication process.
No need to trample on voter privacy rights
of Majority of voters in Arizona We are confident in our election results, and lawmakers have a duty to maintain voter confidence in our democratic system.
There is no need to trample voters’ federal and state privacy rights and risk the democracy that comes with such reckless legislation.
Arizonaans have the right to make their voices heard within our democracy, free from threats and intimidation by villains, which is not possible under the Voter Privacy Abuse Act.
In the name of supposed transparency, these bills are fueling chaos, endangering voters, violating voters’ constitutional rights, and all to harassing election naysayers ahead of a major election year. It’s meant to soothe.
Alex Grotta is the Arizona Bureau Chief All votes are local actions Jenny Guzman is the Program Director.Common Cause Arizona. reach them alex@allvotingislocal.org and jguzman@commoncause.org.
