Voting advocates are calling out Arizona Dem senator's refusal to end filibuster to protect state voting rights

18 March 2021

The next battle over voting rights has already begun — and it ...

Voting advocates are not pleased with Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's (D-Ariz.) refusal to end the filibuster, a move they argue could protect voting rights for citizens in the state of Arizona.

Republican lawmakers are trying to pass a staggering number of highly restrictive voting laws.

A piece published by Mother Jones highlights how two of the proposed bills have the potential to wipe hundreds of thousands of registered voters from the state's database.

The publication reports that one of the bills "would remove nearly 200,000 voters—including up to 50,000 Latino voters—from a list of 3.2 million voters who are automatically sent mail-in ballots because they did not vote by mail in two prior election cycles."

A second bill could also lead to hundreds of thousands of ballots being tossed out because it "would require that mail-in ballots be postmarked by the Thursday before the election in order to be counted, regardless of whether they arrive by Election Day."

Another restrictive practice aimed at having votes tossed out centers on the requirement for those without driver's licenses to submit other forms of identification for verification purposes.

According to state Rep. Athena Salman (D-Ariz.) Republican efforts are an attempt to ensure the massive Democratic voter turnout of 2020 never occurs again. "They definitely came with a plan to make sure the historic voter turnout we saw in 2020 never happens again," said Salman, also the top-ranking Democrat on Arizona's House Government and Elections Committee.

She also noted how detrimental Republicans' proposed bills could be for the future of democracy in Arizona. "In Arizona, the fate of democracy rests on those pieces of legislation passing and getting signed by the president," Salman said.

Like many other Democratic lawmakers, Salman is also displeased with Sinema's efforts, or lack thereof, to denounce Republicans' push for voter suppression.,

"Being on the front lines in the state legislature, as the ranking Democrat on the Government and Elections Committee, to me it just feels like this is a matter of life or death for our democracy," Salman said. "It's just alarming that we have members of the US Senate who are holding onto the Jim Crow filibuster, when this is a state where I have a front-row seat to the Republican Party ending any free and fair elections moving forward."

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