GQP Voter Suppression Senators Whine About Business Community Opposition

Above: Republican senators Michelle Ugenti-Rita and J.D. Mesnard. – Howard Fischer, Capitol Media Services.

This is rich. Two of Arizona’s worst Republican senators lashed out Monday at businesses and the media, accusing them of “mischaracterizing” changes they are proposing to state election laws. More like speaking truth to power, and “you can’t handle the truth!”

Remember, every Republican senator supported the Arizona Senate’s sham audit of Maricopa County ballots for the 2020 election by a Trump conspiracy theorist, in pursuit of continuing the Big Lie that the election was stolen into the next two election cycles. The Big Lie is how Republicans intend to rally their delusional base voters. Their election strategy is built upon this Big Lie.

Howard Fischer reports, 2 GOP senators blast critics of proposed changes to Arizona voting laws:

[The GQP Queen of Voter Suppression], Michelle Ugenti-Rita of Scottsdale, and J.D. Mesnard of Chandler (this asshole again) said their measures add necessary layers of security to the election process. They said the terms of the bills and their motives have been distorted in news coverage. [They haven’t.]

[T]he pair, at a news conference backed by other GOP legislators, saved their harshest criticism for Greater Phoenix Leadership, an association of CEOs in business, education and philanthropy, some of whose members sent an open letter to legislators saying three bills — including the two both are sponsoring — “seek to disenfranchise voters.’’

“They are attempts at voter suppression cloaked as reform — plain and simple,’’ the Greater Phoenix Leadership letter states.

Said Ugenti-Rita: “If you disagree with my bill or any of the bills these other members represent in the name of election integrity, that’s fine. But you don’t get to mischaracterize and lie about it.’’

“Only Republican legislators get to do this!” And they are doing it right now.

There was no immediate response from Greater Phoenix Leadership.

Ugenti-Rita said it’s the process for people to debate the relative merits of legislation and suggest changes.

“But you don’t get to label everybody who may support it as racist,’’ she said. “We’re not going to be intimidated.’’

Uh-huh. You know what they say, “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” Here’s the best part:

Nothing in the Greater Phoenix Leadership letter accused anyone of racism. However, some other opponents of the measures, including some Democratic lawmakers, have said they will have a harsher impact on ethnic and racial minority voters.

Sooo, a bit of self-identification as a racist, ya think? Your guilty conscience got the best of you.

No evidence of widespread fraud

Monday’s event was more than just an airing of the grievances of the two senators. The pair also are trying to pressure House GOP leadership to put the measures, both of which have cleared the Senate, up for a vote.

Both proposals deal with early voting.

Arizona has some of the simplest laws, with individuals allowed to be placed on a “permanent early voting list’’ and be guaranteed to get a ballot in the mail ahead of each election. That ballot can be mailed back or dropped off at a polling site.

Every early ballot is reviewed by county election workers to see if the signature on the outside matches what they have on file.

If there is a discrepancy, a call is made to the voter to determine the ballot’s veracity. Reasons for such variance in signatures can range from people getting older to someone having a physical condition.

About 80% of Arizonans now use early ballots.

Mesnard’s proposal, Senate Bill 1713, would require anyone sending in an early ballot to also provide a date of birth as well as either a driver’s license number or a county-issued voter ID number. That has raised concerns for people who do not drive, as few people are aware of their voter ID number.

He did not dispute that there is no evidence of widespread fraud in the process in Arizona. But Mesnard said that’s irrelevant.

“I don’t even have to sit here and debate whether someone found evidence or not,’’ he said. “What is undebatable is that people have a lot of concerns about it. That, by itself, is a threat.’’

Oh, here we go again. Because delusional MAGA/Qanon cult members deep into conspiracy theories have gone down the rabbit hole and “have a lot of concerns about it,” we are supposed to pander to these dunderheads and make it more difficult for people to vote? Simply because they are your base voters? Maybe you should all look into group therapy with a cult deprogrammer.

He specifically rejected that the reason for voter doubt is that former President Donald Trump spread rumors for months before the 2020 election that early ballots are inherently untrustworthy and insisted the only way he could lose is if there was fraud.

“At the end of the day, these things began long before President Trump was president,’’ Mesnard said, though he said it did reach a “pinnacle’’ during the campaign.

Trump said the same things in 2016, and continued to do so for four years. Mesnard is correct in that the GQP has been promoting the “voter fraud” fraud for decades as a means of voter suppression, and to delegitimize any election Republicans do not win. They have convinced themselves that only Republicans can legitimately win elections. It is the conceit of entitlement.

“The response is not just to dismiss them because he claimed there was fraud and we didn’t have some sort of level of evidence that meets somebody’s standard that we’re not going to do anything,’’ Mesnard said. “We’re not going to ignore those problems.’’

WTF Dude. I’d like to see you come into court and tell a judge this. “Your honor, I don’t have any evidence whatsoever to support my case, but my client is entitled to relief simply because he believes it is true.”

This is what no evidence whatsoever to support your case gets you in a court of law.

https://twitter.com/marceelias/status/1384325820861358083

• The one win was over a minor filing deadline.

Mesnard produced a poll taken by Data Orbital earlier this month that found a majority of Arizonans surveyed, including half of those who vote early, said they had at least some concern about their votes being “properly counted,’’ though the survey does not explain what are those fears.

But Greater Phoenix Leadership, in its letter, said the bills are a “concerted effort’’ in Arizona and elsewhere by those “who wish to sow additional doubts about our elections in the minds of voters, and feed into the paranoia that has plagued our political discourse over the past several months.’’

Which is exactly what this clown show press conference was doing.

“Disturbingly, each of these proposals have one thing in common: making it more difficult for Arizonans to vote,’’ the organization said. The CEOs disputed the contention of lack of confidence, saying that is belied by the increasing number of Arizonans who vote by mail.

Not concerned about business leaders’ reaction

Ugenti-Rita is pushing Senate Bill 1485.

It spells out that if someone does not return an early ballot in at least one of four prior elections — meaning a primary and a general election in two successive years — the person is dropped from what would no longer be called the permanent early voting list. [What part of “permanent” do you not understand?] They could still sign up again to get early ballots and they could still go directly to the polls on Election Day.

Foes contend this would have a disparate negative impact on minority voters who may be less inclined to vote in every election but still want the option of getting that ballot for the years they are interested in casting an early ballot.

It also means that political independents, who usually do not cast ballots in partisan primaries, have just two chances to comply versus four for partisan voters.

Ugenti-Rita said she is going to make “small, meaningful tweaks’’ to the measure in an effort to address critics but declined on Monday to provide details.

The issue of what the business community thinks about the bills — or at least the message the proposals send — became more crucial following the decision of Major League Baseball to move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta after the Georgia Legislature enacted several measures that were perceived to be attacks on minority voting.

Arizona has some potential risks in that area, with the state scheduled to host the 2023 Super Bowl, the NCAA Men’s Final Four in 2024 and the Women’s Final Four two years later. As the Georgia situation shows, sports leagues have shown themselves to be averse to political controversy, particularly on issues like race and gender.

Michael Bidwell, owner of the Arizona Cardinals, was among the signers of the Greater Phoenix Leadership letter.

There’s also the question of whether businesses might decide to locate elsewhere to avoid being linked to negative publicity about Arizona voting laws. Ugenti-Rita made it clear she didn’t care.

“That’s their choice,’’ she said. “And I would say, don’t let the door hit you where the good lord split you.’’

So you don’t want businesses to come to Arizona? And you also want businesses to leave Arizona? How do you think this is going to play when you run for Secretary of State? (God save us).

You have got more than Greater Phoenix Leadership business CEO’s to worry about. The AP reports Faith leaders across US join in decrying voting restrictions:

In Georgia, faith leaders are asking corporate executives to condemn laws restricting voting access — or face a boycott. In Arizona and Texas, clergy have assembled outside the state capitols to decry what they view as voter-suppression measures targeting Black and Hispanic people.

Similar initiatives have been undertaken in Florida, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and elsewhere as many faith leaders perceive a threat to voting rights that warrants their intervention in a volatile political issue.

“It is very much in a part of our tradition, as Christians, to be engaged in the public square,” said the Rev. Dr. Eric Ledermann, pastor at University Presbyterian Church in Tempe, Arizona, after the event outside the Statehouse.

“When people say, ‘Let’s not get political in the church’ — Jesus was very political,” Ledermann said. “He was engaged in how his culture, his community was being shaped, and who was being left out of the decision-making process.”

[A]frican Methodist Episcopal Bishop Reginald Jackson, who oversees AME churches in Georgia, has been urging corporate leaders to do more to fight voting restrictions. So far, he’s dissatisfied with the response, and says he may call for boycotts of some companies.

UPDATE: The New York Times reports, Georgia Faith Leaders Urge Boycott of Home Depot Over Voting Law:

A major coalition of Black faith leaders in Georgia, representing more than 1,000 churches in the state, called on Tuesday for a boycott of Home Depot, arguing that the company had abdicated its responsibility as a good corporate citizen by not pushing back on the state’s new voting law.

The call for a boycott, led by Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, who oversees all 534 African Methodist Episcopal churches in Georgia, represents one of the first major steps to put significant economic pressure on businesses to be more vocal in opposing Republican efforts in Georgia and around the country to enact new restrictions on voting.

“We don’t believe this is simply a political matter,” Bishop Jackson said in an interview. “This is a matter that deals with securing the future of this democracy, and the greatest right in this democracy is the right to vote.”

Home Depot, Mr. Jackson said, “demonstrated an indifference, a lack of response to the call, not only from clergy, but a call from other groups to speak out in opposition to this legislation.”

While boycotts can be challenging to carry out in ways that put meaningful financial pressure on large corporations, the call nonetheless represents a new phase in the battle over voting rights in Georgia.

But the coalition of faith leaders pointed to the use of boycotts in the civil rights movement, when Black voters’ rights were also threatened, and said their call to action was meant as a “warning shot” for other state legislatures.

“This is not just a Georgia issue; we’re talking about democracy in America that is under threat,” said the Rev. Timothy McDonald III, the pastor of the First Iconium Baptist Church in Atlanta. “We’ve got to use whatever leverage and power, spiritual fortitude that we have, including our dollars, to help people to understand that this is a national campaign.”

I will remind you, GQP Queen of Voter Suppression, that Arizonans are very familiar with conducting boycotts (e.g., Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday and SB 1070). If businesses and the faith community come together to boycott your voter suppression bills, it is on your head and your cavalier “I don’t care” attitude. You will own this boycott.  We should name it after you to drive home the point, and to drive you out of office.