Republicans are asking why some members of their Party in the Senate are blocking a bill that would return precinct voting to Arizona.
Senator Ken Bennett, a Republican out of Prescott, has joined progressives in opposition to HCR 2032, a bill that would allow Arizona voters to decide whether they want to vote by precinct or maintain Maricopa County’s controversial vote center model that critics claim has led to printer failures and the disenfranchisement of election day voters for three election cycles.
Bennet joins the State Conference NAACP, Common Cause, Planned Parenthood Advocates Of Arizona, Sierra Club , and the illegal immigrant rights group, Living United For Change In Arizona (LUCHA), in opposition.
Bennett brings a unique perspective to election bills as the only legislator who has served previously as Secretary of State, so his opinion often carries a great deal of weight. But his position on this bill has many stumped.
Currently, each year before a general election, each county Board of Supervisors (BOS) “must establish a convenient number of election precincts within the county and define the boundaries of each precinct. At least 20 days before a general or primary election, or 10 days before a special election, the county BOS must designate one polling place in each election precinct where the election must be held. On a specific resolution, the county BOS may authorize the use of voting centers in place of, or in addition to, specifically designated polling places.”
HCR 2032 removes the ability of the county BOS to establish voting centers as well as removing the ability of the county recorder to establish on-site early voting locations.
The bill also caps the number of registered voters in an election precinct at 1,000 when designating election precincts.
Bennett is a corrupt RINO who when was acting as the spokesperson for senate Audit he was undermining it behind the scenes. He was the source of many of the leaks.
He is NOT for election integrity.
He is a member of the old guard who depended on corrupt elections.
There is nothing more simple than hand counting 1,000 ballots in a precinct and then certifying the count. But then, do not let county and state to use computers to recount and recertify and further manipulate. The locals count, decide and that is final.
Unfortunately RINO’S apparently will never near endangered species status…
Optimism is wonderful, and it’s way better than pessimism. Better than both of those is realism. In Maricopa County it would require a minimum of 2375 voting locations, and each of those would require the people and equipment to conduct the election. This “ask” is as implausible as the “ask” to hand-count all ballots in a maximum of 24 hours. Let’s get real, and focus on actually winning elections, instead of deluding ourselves into thinking we’re losing because of cheaters and/or the mechanics of conducting elections. To borrow from James Carville, it’s the candidates, stupid.
sounds like maricopa county is too big and needs to be broken up into a bunch of smaller counties then
The “no more than 1000” part of this is a deliberate poison pill that makes it practically impossible. No such limit existed before. First move back to precinct, then set limits if necessary.
Caps precincts at 1000? That seems like the problem, how many precincts did they used to have and were they capped at 1,000?
Well, what did he say when you called and asked? How could his R colleagues not demand an answer? Poor reporting here.
Heaven forbid we return to an old fashioned system like precinct voting with paper ballots and voter ID like the French did. Au contraire!!
Bennet is a RINO who’s plan is to go with the proposition of the two who get the highest number of votes in a primary even if both are Democrat like they do in Slaska and other states.