{"id":209,"date":"2022-06-02T00:07:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-02T00:07:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dcprojects.medill.northwestern.edu\/sosfordemocracy\/?p=209"},"modified":"2022-08-19T15:26:08","modified_gmt":"2022-08-19T15:26:08","slug":"arizona-mainbar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dcprojects.medill.northwestern.edu\/sosfordemocracy\/2022\/06\/02\/arizona-mainbar\/","title":{"rendered":"Arizona primary: An election denier wants to run Arizona’s elections as secretary of state"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PHOENIX \u2013 State Rep. Mark Finchem, the leading GOP candidate to be Arizona\u2019s next secretary of state, wants to ban electronic voting machines and force the state to use only paper ballots and count them by hand, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He’s been linked to QAnon conspiracy theorists, is backed by former President Donald Trump and tried to get state lawmakers to throw out the state’s electoral votes for President Joe Biden in 2020, the first Democrat to win the state in 24 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Echoing Donald Trump’s false\u00a0claims about a stolen election in 2020, Finchem is among a number of swing state candidates nationwide\u00a0for the office of secretary of state<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<\/strong>a usually obscure role that has gained new importance in Arizona and beyond this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Often thought of as nonpartisan roles responsible for the smooth running of elections, those secretary of state offices now could become something very different, and much more partisan, under the new crop of candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Current Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, a Democrat now running for governor, is among those deeply concerned about election deniers seeking to control elections in the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople who are actively seeking to undermine our democratic institutions are now running to oversee them,\u201d she said. \u201cI am really scared for the future of our democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finchem and company<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Arizona\u2019s secretary of state serves as the state\u2019s de facto lieutenant governor and chief election officer. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finchem is running against another election denier, fellow State Rep. Shawnna Bolick, and two other Republicans in the Aug. 2 primary.\u00a0Finchem and Bolick joined 28 other Arizona lawmakers in signing a resolution to Congress\u00a0requesting the state\u2019s \u201calternate\u201d electoral votes<\/a>\u00a0count for Trump in the 2020 election.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hobbs and other Democrats say Arizona is part of a larger attempt by Trump and his supporters to place political allies in top election roles around the country\u00a0to ensure his victory in 2024.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you look at the presidential election as a chessboard, they’re setting it up to where it doesn’t matter if Trump wins a state,\u201d said Democratic State Rep. Lorenzo Sierra. \u201cAs long as he’s got the secretary of state, and as long as he’s got the legislature that is willing to overturn fair and free elections, we are dangerously on the edge of becoming an authoritarian state.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finchem and Bolick declined requests for comment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘A coordinated effort’<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Finchem led in fundraising among secretary of state candidates from both parties as of second quarter 2022 campaign finance filings, the most recent available, with advertising executive and fellow GOP candidate Beau Lane close behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lane offers voters a more moderate approach with his support for mail-in voting, a long-standing practice the Republican party recently rejected nationwide. Each candidate has raised over $1.1 million so far, which is more than the 2018 Republican candidate, Steve Gaynor, had raised at this point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lane, who has no prior political experience, says that the office should become a \u201ccustomer-service oriented operation\u201d and touts his business leadership as the right fit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversely, State Sen. Michelle Ugenti-Rita, the fourth GOP candidate, points to her 11 years in the state legislature in claiming leadership on election integrity, a GOP slogan to promote strict voting ID laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among Democratic candidates for secretary of state, Adrian Fontes,\u00a0former Maricopa County recorder,<\/a>\u00a0is running against House Minority Whip Rep. Reginald Bolding.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a coordinated effort across this country to put anti-democracy candidates in election offices, and we can’t allow that to happen,\u201d said Bolding, who supports a new ballot initiative to restore voting access.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arizonans for Fair Elections, a coalition of state and local community groups, is leading the ballot initiative to make the vote-by-mail list permanent again in Arizona, extend early voting hours and allow same-day registration, among other provisions. Signatures in favor of the ballot measure are currently under review by the state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ugenti-Rita said the ballot initiative unfairly sidesteps the state legislature, which is narrowly controlled by Republicans in both the House and the Senate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Arizona, we have spoke[n] through our legislature, and we have said how we want our elections to run,\u201d Ugenti-Rita said. \u201cAnd now they’re overturning the will of the people with the initiative.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Shaping future laws<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Arizona\u2019s next secretary of state could be the one to enforce a new citizenship requirement for the state\u2019s voters. The law requires Arizona voters to show proof of citizenship when registering to vote in federal elections for president and members of Congress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law will not take effect until 2023, which means the winner of this year’s election will shape its implementation \u2014 including its influence on the 2024 presidential race. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Supreme Court decided in 2013 that a citizenship requirement goes against federal law. The ruling allowed the state to continue requiring proof of citizenship to vote in state elections but not federal elections. Although all states require U.S. citizenship to vote, Arizona is the only state that requires documentary proof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The law \u201crequires election officials to go back through their voter registration rolls and remove voters from the rolls who have not previously provided [proof of citizenship],\u201d which would most affect older voters, said Will Wilder, a fellow at the Brennan Center for Justice\u2019s Democracy Program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Older voters tend to skew Republican,<\/a>\u00a0so it is unclear how the law would affect the state\u2019s GOP electorate. However, some voting rights experts see ambiguity in how the law will come into play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am hopeful that this is a set of procedures that is largely going to be about voter registration going forward rather than removal,\u201d said Danielle Lang, senior director of voting rights for the Campaign Legal Center. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lang and her organization have filed a lawsuit against the legislation. Another part of the law \u2014 which requires voters to list their place of birth \u2014 could target citizens born outside of the United States, she said. According to the Migration Policy Institute, over 400,000 Arizonans are naturalized citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another voting rights organization, Mi Familia Vota, which aims to increase voting among Latinos and Latinas, has also filed a lawsuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn Arizona, when we make it harder for people to vote, we’re sending a strong message\u2026 to the community that their involvement is not welcomed,\u201d said Carolina Rodriguez-Greer, the Arizona state director for Mi Familia Vota.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lane is opposed to purging voters who have not shown proof of citizenship in the past, suggesting that voters be \u201cgrandfathered\u201d in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Both Democratic candidates oppose the law altogether, although Fontes said he expects it will be struck down based on the 2013 Supreme Court ruling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Voting rights experts point to another provision of the law that they find equally concerning: its requirement for proof of residency, which not everyone has or can get easily. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[This has] created a full, new, huge barrier for that subset of people that use alternative IDs \u2026 that\u2019s snowbirds, that\u2019s students, that\u2019s people who live in tribal and rural lands,\u201d said Alex Gulotta, Arizona state director for All Voting is Local, a national voting rights advocacy group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would also make it difficult for organizations to register voters while out in their communities, because many people don\u2019t carry the documents needed for proof of residency with them, said Darrell Hill, Arizona American Civil Liberties Union policy director.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe’re at a bit of a crisis in our country, because the bedrock of how we elect our leaders is under attack,\u201d Gulotta said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Contributing: Jeannie Michele Kopstein, Medill News Service<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The state’s Aug. 2 primary includes four GOP candidates, two of whom are 2020 election deniers, and two Democratic candidates. The winner of the November general election will play a key role in determining voting procedures in the state for years to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[16],"class_list":["post-209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arizona","tag-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcprojects.medill.northwestern.edu\/sosfordemocracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcprojects.medill.northwestern.edu\/sosfordemocracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcprojects.medill.northwestern.edu\/sosfordemocracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcprojects.medill.northwestern.edu\/sosfordemocracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcprojects.medill.northwestern.edu\/sosfordemocracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/dcprojects.medill.northwestern.edu\/sosfordemocracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":936,"href":"https:\/\/dcprojects.medill.northwestern.edu\/sosfordemocracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209\/revisions\/936"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dcprojects.medill.northwestern.edu\/sosfordemocracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcprojects.medill.northwestern.edu\/sosfordemocracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dcprojects.medill.northwestern.edu\/sosfordemocracy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}