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A new lawsuit challenges an Arizona law that takes a firm stance against voter fraud by requiring that someone cancels their previous registration before registering in any county in the state.
Senate Bill 1260, which takes effect on September 24, also says that anyone who “knowingly provides a mechanism for voting to another person who is registered in another state” is guilty of a felony. The Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans, Voto Latino, and progressive group Priorities USA sued, claiming that the law goes too far.
“People do not ordinarily think to affirmatively cancel their voter registration when they move, and there often is no obvious or easy way to do so,” says the complaint, filed August 15 in Arizona federal court. “Nor is there any assurance that a jurisdiction will actually cancel a voter’s registration immediately upon receiving a request.”
The law says that “those who tend to be more residentially transient, such as younger voters, poorer voters, and non-white voters” will be severely impacted by the law, as will “older voters who move to Arizona to retire.”
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By criminalizing actions that would enable them to vote, the lawsuit argues, the law “will make it harder for these voters to exercise their fundamental right to vote.” The plaintiff groups note that they “work to assist Arizonans in exercising their fundamental right to vote,” and thus their staff or volunteers could end up facing criminal charges.
The statute’s language indicates that it is geared toward those who intentionally help someone vote when they are aware that they are registered in a different state, as it gives an example of someone who forwards an early ballot addressed to another person.