One of Gilbert’s newly elected state legislators, who wants to overturn the 2022 election, is now trying to get his colleagues to outlaw mail-in ballots.

A proposal by Republican Rep. Liz Harris says anyone who wants to vote must go to the polls. According to HB 2229, the only exceptions are persons with physical disabilities or military personnel abroad. Harris represents his LD 13, which includes West Gilbert and South Chandler and Sun Lakes.

But that’s just part of her agenda.

Harris is also a sponsor of HB 2232. Not only does it prevent even early voting from being done in person, but it requires all ballots to be counted by hand.

And her HB 2233 seeks to expand the grounds anyone can sue to overturn an election result, empowering them and their allies to inspect every ballot. Current law only allows for the review of randomly drawn samples.

But what can have the broadest impact is requiring people to actually go to the polls and vote in person.

In recent elections, more than 80% of the nearly 2.6 million voters chose to take advantage of a 1991 law that allows anyone to request early voting. But Harris said it wasn’t right.

She said an audit of the 2020 elections ordered by then-Senator Karen Huang provided access to both ballot envelopes and each person’s voter registration card.

“Their discrepancy rate is 12%, which is a solid discrepancy rate,” Harris claims. She said people could “see it in person” if they signed a non-disclosure agreement.

Harris, who lost her 2020 legislative run before winning a House seat last year, is not about Donald Trump or Kari Lake, who continues to claim the gubernatorial race was stolen from her. She said the problem has existed since the law was adopted 30 years ago.

So why would voters and lawmakers agree to scrap a program that has proven so popular? He said it was important to convince the faction.

“Their vote is being canceled because another vote is being entered into the system,” she told Capitol Media Services. rice field.

Similar allegations were made in lawsuits challenging both the 2020 and 2022 elections. However, the challengers failed each time they tried to persuade the judge that the law was being broken.

Harris’ legislation rests on the legal theory that the only form of voting specifically permitted by the Arizona Constitution is Election Day, where you vote in person. And she takes her hat off to the “secret ballot” requirement.

“Elections by secret ballot are elections in which voters are absolutely protected from the possibility of others knowing how they voted,” Harris wrote in the bill. And that includes her family, friends and colleagues, she said.

“The head of household should allow the whole household to vote together at the kitchen table or allow the head of household to vote on his or her own ballot because adult children live in that person’s home. You can request it,” Harris said in HB.2229.

You can’t even buy someone’s votes with in-person voting, Harris said. Because the person who gave the money has no way of knowing how others were rewarded or filled out their own ballots inside the voting booth. I actually marked the ballot.

“This physically protected area is a polling place with a privacy curtain within a manned polling place, and ballots are strictly controlled within the polling place, with no entry or exit of ballots,” her law states. . “The ballots are voted on the spot, folded and placed in the ballot box.”

If the discussion sounds familiar, it should.

These are very similar to the claims made by attorney Alexander Corodin in a lawsuit filed by the Arizona Republican Party last year. And he, too, invoked the constitutional right to secret ballots to abolish early voting.

Mojave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen acknowledged that Collodin provided an example of a “villain” violating the laws dealing with early voting.

This includes a case in Yuma County where a woman pleaded guilty to collecting other people’s early ballots and in some cases marking the way they voted. He said he wouldn’t do it.

“Furthermore, they have not exhibited a pattern of behavior so egregious as to undermine the entire system of no excuse mail-in ballots provided by the Arizona Legislature,” he wrote. , there is an enforcement mechanism within the statute.”

Corrodin, who was elected to state legislature alongside Harris this year, filed a lawsuit in the Court of Appeals last month, but has yet to comment.

Based on her belief that previous elections were stolen, Harris isn’t just proposing legislation to change voting laws.

Just days after the election, Harris not only called for the November 8 election to be overturned, but also cemented his public position by stating: Possibility of fraudulent elections. ”

Republicans hold a narrow 31-29 lead in the House, but her refusal to endorse may not matter.

Measures approved strictly on party line are likely to be rejected by Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs. plug.