There is the sweet smell of change in the air. The first infrastructure law passed with bipartisan support, proving that President Joe Biden could, indeed, show the nation a Congress working for Americans. Then, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) held his 50 senators in check for the second more expansive infrastructure bill to protect real people’s needs. It went full partisan. McConnell’s strategy had only been to keep the filibuster in firmly in place. The Democratic National Committee (DNC) and the Arizona Democratic Party bared their teeth and went after the state’s new oppressive bill.
The Republican-dominated legislation would seek out ineligible voters in the voter registration database. President Biden won Arizona by 11,000 votes in 2020.
DNC Chair Jaime Harrison released a statement reading, as CNN reported:
‘The Democratic Party is putting Republicans on notice: if you infringe on the right to vote, we will step up and fight back to protect voters and their rights.’
Democratic officials argued a letter to Arizona officials that this provision violated “both federal voting law and Arizonans’ constitutional rights.” That was step number one toward filing a lawsuit challenging restrictive voting laws, according to CNN.
Their suit was based upon National Voter Registration Act. Not only that, this was the first time that the national Democratic Party went legal to guard against the tsunami of restrictive voting laws passed in Republican-dominated state legislatures this year.
An Arizona law lets the secretary of state purge any “person or entity” as deemed valid as ineligible. Plus, there was no notification nor recourse if the system made an error. Harrison said:
‘Rather than leaving elections to election professionals, Arizona’s Republican legislature has granted itself the power to appoint a private party to unilaterally disqualify voters without even giving them notice.’
The DNC put $25 million into an action to educate voters, register them, and use lawsuits as a tool.
Arizona Senate President Karen Fann (R) defended the Maricopa County law in the largest county in the state. Chair of the county’s Board of Supervisors Jack Sellers (R) insisting the state was “running a grift disguised as an audit.”
Harrison argued this was part of the Republican pattern of interfering in elections and “proving” Donald Trump’s tired trope that his election was stolen, according to justice.gov.
Eighteen other states have instituted 400 election bills, a number of them already in effect in Kansas, Georgia, Iowa, and Arkansas. They would overturn elections in the Republicans’ favor. This even as the Cyber Ninjas continue to “audit” the state’s ballots.
Provisions in the National Voter Rights Act read:
‘[Regardless of] whatever other methods of voter registration which States offer, the Act requires states to provide the opportunity to apply to register to vote for federal elections by three means: Section 5Â of the Act requires states to provide individuals with the opportunity to register to vote at the same time that they apply for a driver’s license or seek to renew a driver’s license, and requires the State to forward the completed application to the appropriate state or local election official.
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