by Natalia Mittelstadt
Democratic governors are vetoing election integrity legislation passed by Republican-led state legislatures, despite allegations, investigations and convictions of voter fraud occurring across the United States. These judgments require proof “beyond a reasonable doubt” that a crime actually occurred.
Over the past few months, the Democratic governors of Arizona, North Carolina and Wisconsin have vetoed legislation passed by Republican-led state legislatures to ensure election security, arguing that their concerns are unfounded or the solutions are unnecessary. However, these states have recently seen voter fraud investigations and convictions that have led to the passage of legislation.
Earlier this month, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs (D) vetoed bills it would correspondingly bar people convicted of ballot abuse from holding elected office and prevent county registrars from mailing voter registration cards to most residents with out-of-state mailing addresses.
The previous bill, House Bill 2612was introduced after former San Luis City Councilwoman Gloria Lopez-Torres pleaded guilty last June to non-criminal voting abuse and was then named by the city council as San Luis’ modern vice mayor in December.
An investigation by the state Attorney General’s Office and the Yuma County Sheriff’s Office found that Torres collected seven early ballots for voters in the August 2020 primary election, giving them to another woman who placed them in a ballot drop box. According to Yuma Sun.
Torres pleaded guilty, received a 24-month suspended sentence, ordered to pay a $2,500 fine and was barred from seeking re-election to the city council.
Hobbs vetoed HB 2612, saying it was “unnecessary.”
She too vetoed second bill, HB 2404claiming that the restriction on mailing voter registration cards was “unnecessary” and that both state law and the Election Procedure Manual “already describe a process in which a voter provides a new out-of-state residential address.”
However, state Rep. John Gillette (R), the bill’s sponsor, said in January that the legislation was intended to aid prevent voter registration fraud and aid spotless up voter rolls in counties, According to Arizona’s mirror.
In February A report by the Public Interest Legal Foundation determined that there were over 400 people who were not citizens of the country removed from the voter rolls two Arizona counties since 2015, but the actual number of non-U.S. citizens on the voter rolls is likely much higher.
Last month, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D-N.Y.) vetoed two bills that would have put more restrictions on dropping off and receiving absentee ballots from nursing home residents.
The bills were passed by the GOP-controlled state legislature after the 2020 presidential election, which took place during Covid-19 restrictions, when voting rates among nursing home residents surged.
Regarding first billthat changed procedures and requirements to allow nursing home workers to aid residents vote, Evers said he opposed it because workers “have received minimal training in election procedures.”
He added that the bill “would effectively require all ballots containing even the most insignificant errors to be rejected unless the clerk is able to return those ballots for timely corrections, increasing the likelihood that an eligible Wisconsin voter will be disenfranchised and prevented from voting.” him a share in our democracy.” “
The second law, which provided a procedure for changing the status of incompetent persons not eligible to vote to inactive voter status and required e-mails to be sent to designated contact persons regarding a resident’s voting, was vetoed for this last recipe.
“I cannot support legislation that could enable voter intimidation and interference while depriving eligible, aging and senior Wisconsinites of the dignity, privacy and independence of voting that is afforded to every other eligible Wisconsin voter,” he added. Evers wrote in his veto.
According to data from March 2022 special adviser’s report by retired State Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman on behalf of the Wisconsin Assembly, 91 nursing homes in Milwaukee, Racine, Dane, Kenosha and Brown counties, 2020 voter turnout ranged from 95% to 100% compared to overall nationwide voter participation rates of 67% in 2020 and 60% in 2016.
Also this month, Project Amistad posted a video Wisconsin nursing home patients who received mail-in ballots in the 2020 presidential election.
The video features Project Amistad lawyer Erick Kaardal interviewed seven families of Wisconsin nursing home patients who had postal ballots cast for them during the 2020 presidential election, even though their health condition was destitute. The patients’ families said they could not vote.
In November 2021, Racine County Sheriff’s Office asked the state attorney general to investigate the matter alleged illegal guidelines issued by the Wisconsin Board of Elections to circumvent the state’s special voting process, in which each municipality’s clerk brings “a sufficient number of ballots to each community center to cast a vote” and “assists voters in the voting process.”
Instead, the commission mailed absentee ballots to nursing home residents. The the sheriff was found that the facility’s staff, under the guise of “helping” residents vote, encouraged some people whose family members considered them incapable of voting to vote.
In October, under GOP leadership The North Carolina state legislature overturned this decision the Democratic governor’s veto of two election bills, including Senate Bill 747, which prevented the employ of private funds in election administration.
Late last year, two North Carolina counties – Brunswick and Forsyth – left the American Alliance for Election Excellence, project of the Center for Technology and Civic Life (CTCL), after joining last year.
The Alliance awards funds to counties and municipalities through the Centers of Election Excellence program. The alliance will provide $80 million over five years “to envision, support and celebrate excellence in America’s election administration.” according to CTCL.
However, both Brunswick and Forsyth counties chose to do so don’t take money from the alliance when they became members in 2023
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Natalia Mittelstadt is a reporter for Just the News.
Photo “Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs” by Governor Katie Hobbs.
