Governor Katie Hobbs’ high rate of vetoes in election-related legislation was featured in a new Ballotpedia report released this week.
That report also detailed the thousands of election-related bills considered nationwide, highlighting those passed and vetoed in Arizona specifically.
Arizona with its divided government saw the passage of three key election bills, and the veto of seven.
The digital nonprofit featured several key bills passed by the Arizona legislature this year: HB 2785, which modified the statewide primary date by one week; SB 1342, which provided compensation to political party designees for post-election audit hand counts, with a limit of 75 percent of those conducting the hand count from being members of the same political party; and HB 2482, which required county election officials to notify voters of registration record changes within 24 hours.
Ballotpedia also highlighted the seven bills vetoed by Governor Katie Hobbs: SB 1060, allowing federal candidates to choose observers at polling centers; SB 1330, replacing the term “drop box” with “ballot box” or “container”; SB 1097, making school board races partisan; HB 2393, allowing for an alternative presidential preference election for overseas military voters; HB 2404, prohibiting county recorders from issuing voter registration cards to out-of-state addresses; HB 2612, prohibiting individuals convicted of ballot abuse offenses from holding elected public office; and HB 2031, reducing the threshold for asking voters to expand the board of supervisors from 150,000 to 125,000.
Hobbs’ vetoes pushed Arizona to the top in terms of highest vetoes nationwide.
Although Arizona was featured as one of the key states reviewed, the state didn’t make the top 10 for most active overall in passing bills. With the exception of Maryland and Virginia, all of these states had Republican trifectas. In order from most activity to least: Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Louisiana, Idaho, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia, South Dakota, and Maryland.
Arizona was, however, most active among the 10 states with divided governments.
In its report, Ballotpedia tallied the total of election-related legislation considered across Arizona and the rest of the nation: over 3,700 bills.
The nonprofit also noted that legislation topic or type was often determined by the political party leading the state. In Republican-led states, the election-related bills focused on ballot harvesting or collection, voter registration drives, noncitizen voting, or ranked-choice voting. In Democrat-led states, the bills focused on ballot curing for absentee or mail-in voting, voter suppression, and election disinformation or misinformation.
Bipartisan support existed for about eight percent of bills on topics such as voter list maintenance, protections for elections officials and workers, presidential electors, and voting by eligible but incarcerated individuals or felons.
States with a Republican trifecta and Republican or other sponsorship of the bills enacted the greatest majority of election-related legislation: 64 percent (196 bills). Democratic trifecta and Democratic or other sponsorship of the bills enacted 19 percent of the legislation (57 bills). “All other” totaled 17 percent (52 bills).
However, states with Democratic trifectas considered more changes to election laws than those states with Republican trifectas or divided governments. Ballotpedia noted that this was true for the third year in a row of their tracking history.
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Democratic Senate candidate and Congressman Ruben Gallego has flipped his stance on voting rights for illegal migrants.
The congressman recently introduced legislation to clarify the illegality of non-citizen voting in federal elections. Yet last year, Gallego voted against a bill that similarly condemned non-citizen voting.
That D.C. act allowed noncitizens, mainly illegal immigrants, to vote in elections. It became law last February for a time, but the House quickly voted to cancel it.
Gallego’s newest bill, the Voting Clarity Act, serves as an advisory to illegal immigrants. The brief legislation is a mandate for Customs and Border Protection to inform illegal immigrants of federal law: that only citizens may vote in federal elections.
“The Secretary of Homeland Security shall provide information to each alien applying for asylum under this section on the restrictions on voting and the penalties for voting unlawfully under Federal law, including under section 611 of title 18, United States Code, at the time of such application. Information under this paragraph shall be provided in a form and language that the alien can understand.”
Violation of voting law would incur a fine and/or up to one year in prison.
In a press release, Gallego said that the privilege of U.S. citizenship, voting, shouldn’t be extended to noncitizens.
“That is why it is critical that those seeking to enter the U.S. are told clearly and upfront that they cannot vote in our elections if they are not citizens,” said Gallego. “I’m proud to introduce this commonsense bill to combat misinformation about who can, and cannot vote in our federal elections.”
Gallego’s legislation portrays the Senate candidate as tough but fair on the hot topic of the border. Last week, Gallego issued an ad featuring the sheriff who denied the border crisis and rejected Arizona National Guard assistance for his county in doing so, Santa Cruz County Sheriff David Hathaway.
Every day at the border is a challenge.
I’m fighting for bipartisan solutions. Better technology. More manpower.
Hathaway has downplayed the severity of the state of the border.
“We don’t have a migrant crisis on the border. We do not need to militarize our counties and have troops come to the border,” said Hathaway. “We have certain, very vocal sheriffs in this state who are trying to fan the flames on a supposed crisis.”
Arizona border sheriff @JamesDavidHath1 has experienced the crisis at our border firsthand.
That’s why he knows we need leaders that put people over politics.
Sheriff, I’m grateful for your support and look forward to working together to find solutions for our border… pic.twitter.com/5ZJ1FM6P5v
Conversely, Gallego has admitted that the state of the border constitutes a crisis.
AZ is on the front line of the border crisis. But when I asked FEMA – which administers one of the main migrant programs – to visit AZ's border, they claimed it isn’t their “mission space.”
The National Republican Senatorial Committee issued a statement claiming the Voting Clarity Act was just a way to “pander” to Arizonans.
“Ruben Gallego has been rubber-stamping the far left’s most radical, open border policies for his entire career in Washington,” said the NRSC. “His election year pandering is a slap in the face to Arizonans who are facing the brunt of the border crisis Gallego helped create.”
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Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas claimed during a recent visit to Tucson that the Biden administration has reduced illegal immigration.
Levels of border encounters have dropped since this time last year, but remain much higher than those that occurred during the 2022 fiscal year and exponentially higher than those of past administrations.
Mayorkas held a press conference last week at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. In his remarks, Mayorkas claimed that southwest border encounters dropped 40 percent since President Joe Biden took executive action.
“We are imposing stricter consequences for those who cross the border without authorization,” said Mayorkas. “These actions are changing the calculus for those considering crossing our border.”
Mayorkas also claimed that the blame lies with Congress, not Biden, for the prolongation of the border crisis.
The secretary said that Congress needed to provide more funding to hire agents, officers, support personnel; buy, install, and maintain technology; and equip border agents to remove illegal immigrants.
Just several days after addressing Tucsonans, Mayorkas granted an 18-month temporary amnesty to over 300,000 illegal Haitian immigrants. Mayorkas and the Biden administration stated that the migrants don’t pose a threat to national interest.
Yet earlier this year, a Haitian man was arrested for murder and criminal possession of a weapon. That Haitian national, Kenol Baptiste, came into the country using the controversial Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) One app. The CBP One app has come under scrutiny for its perceived facilitation of illegal migration; it began allowing appointment scheduling last January, offering otherwise illegal immigrants the option to schedule an appearance at a port of entry to be released into the country rather than go through smugglers.
Since last January and through May, the app has brought in over 636,600 individuals according to the CBP.
The House impeached Mayorkas earlier this year over his handling of the border crisis, but the Senate later opted to dismiss the impeachment.
While the numbers presented by Mayorkas appeared high, total illegal border crossings remain at historical highs.
According to CBP data last updated in May, southwest border encounters totaled nearly 1.7 million this fiscal year (from October to present), a decline of 46,00 from this time last year and an increase of 152,000 from this time in the 2022 fiscal year.
Since Biden took office, there have been over 8.1 million illegal immigrant encounters. That number serves as an estimate of total illegal immigrant entries, as it doesn’t include “gotaways,” or those who evaded detection upon entry.
The Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) pointed out that the Biden administration continues to allow over 70,000 illegal immigrants into the country through the CBP One app and the Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans (CHNV) parole program, the latter which FAIR disputed was unlawful.
Violent crimes involving illegal immigrants have been on the rise under this administration. The most high-profile cases have frequently involved illegal immigrants who were either inadmissible for admission or were eligible for deportation.
Earlier this week, two employees in a Texas Chick-fil-A restaurant were shot and killed by an El Salvador illegal immigrant, 37-year-old Oved Bernardo Mendoza Argueta.
A number of murders by illegal immigrants also occurred earlier this month.
In Texas, two Venezuelan illegal immigrants — Johan Jose Martinez-Rangel, 22, and Franklin Jose Pena Ramos, 26 — murdered a 12-year-old girl in Houston, Jocelyn Nungaray. In New York, 21-year-old Ecuadorian illegal immigrant Jhon Moises Chacaguasay-Ilbis murdered a 21-year-old woman on her birthday.
Last month, police arrested 23-year-old El Salvador illegal immigrant Victor Martinez-Hernandez for raping and killing 37-year-old Rachel Morrin, a Maryland mother of five, while she was on a run last August. Martinez-Hernandez allegedly fled his home country last February due to accusations of murdering another woman there.
Earlier this year, an illegal immigrant who had been scheduled to be removed in 2020, 25-year-old Mexican citizen Brandon Ortiz-Vite, was arrested for the murder of Ruby Garcia, a 25-year-old woman in Michigan.
There was also the murder of 22-year-old college student Laken Riley in Georgia by 26-year-old Venezuelan illegal immigrant Jose Ibarra. Ibarra was permitted entry despite documented ties to Teen de Aragua (TdA), a Venezuelan gang operating in New York and Georgia, the two states he would live in before murdering Riley.
Even with the rising concerns of public safety and resources illegal immigrants impose, the Biden administration has made more public resources available to them.
In November, DACA recipients (also called “Dreamers”) will qualify for Affordable Care Act health care. American taxpayers will be on the hook for nearly 600,000 DACA recipients, nearly 21,000 of which reside in Arizona.
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Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer plans on voting to reelect President Joe Biden this November, despite identifying publicly as a Republican and having voted for former President Donald Trump in 2020.
Richer clarified his voting intentions during an interview with AZ Family after the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission (ACCEC) debate earlier this month.
“I voted for President Trump in 2020. And who am I planning on voting for [in November]? President Biden,” said Richer.
The current Maricopa County Recorder is a Republican who admitted yesterday that he is going to vote for Joe Biden in the 2024 Presidential Election 🚫
It is time to replace the current Recorder in the upcoming Republican Primary in July!
— Az State Rep. Justin Heap (@azjustinheap) June 25, 2024
Despite pledging to vote for Biden, Richer has remained critical of the president. On Friday, the recorder reposted a remark from Elon Musk mocking the Democratic Party for its declaration that Biden won the first presidential debate on Thursday. He also reposted an article from The Bulwark advocating for Biden to drop out of the race.
Richer’s voting choices haven’t been the only source of contention for his constituents and Arizonans in recent weeks.
Richer endured criticisms in relation to the recent arrest of an elections worker, 27-year-old Walter Ringfield Jr., who stole keys and a fob to the Maricopa County Elections Building last week and has also been placed under investigation for stolen items out of the Senate earlier this month. Ringfield was tasked with assisting in logic and accuracy testing, cleanup of tabulation machines, and various paperwork within the ballot tabulation center.
The stolen items were a magnetic security key which assists in activating ballot tabulation machines and a key unlocking the pins atop the tabulation machines.
The stolen election items cost the county over $20,000 in damages, according to the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office in a press conference earlier this week.
While Richer’s opponent, State Representative Justin Heap, accused Richer of overlooking Ringfield’s criminal past to hire him, Richer says he did no wrong.
“He didn’t have a felony on his record. You know a charge is different from a conviction,” said Richer. “He was caught. Immediately. Credit to the Board. System worked. He’s in custody. No harm was done.”
1) This just shows, again, you don't know the office, @azjustinheap. The guy was working in TABULATION (not under the Recorder's Office). Do your homework.
2) He didn't have a felony on his record. You know a charge is different from a conviction. You're a criminal defense… https://t.co/HmJTHErGgZ
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) June 28, 2024
Ringfield was arrested last year in relation to a theft of over $1,000 from a Fry’s grocery store. The county’s background check didn’t flag that arrest because Ringfield entered a diversion program, which had him on felony release.
Richer initially denied that Ringfield was the same individual who filed a statement of interest last year to run in this year’s Senate race as a Democrat.
Yep. Not the same guy. Although surely you wouldn't say being convicted a crime is disqualifying for a candidate, right?
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) June 25, 2024
Richer later admitted he was wrong, apologizing to GOP Senate candidate Kari Lake’s top advisor, Caroline Wren, as well as radio personality Garret Lewis and lawyer Tom Ryan.
No. I do not. In my haste, I got this one wrong and I apologize for that. Thank you, @CarolineWren , for your patience. And also, my apologies to @GarretLewis, @tomryanlaw, and anyone else lead astray.
The man arrested appears to be the same who filed a statement to run as…
— Stephen Richer—MaricopaCountyRecorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) June 26, 2024
Maricopa County reported that Ringfield began working in elections on June 3. The county sheriff’s office commended the elections staff for recognizing the missing items in a timely manner.
Republican Rep. David Schweikert criticized adoption agencies for predatory practices during a hearing this week featuring celebrity Paris Hilton, founder and CEO of 11:11 Media.
Schweikert came to the conclusion through his experience adopting his two-year-old son, the brother of the little girl they’d adopted before him. According to Schweikert’s remarks during Wednesday’s Ways and Means Committee hearing, adoption agencies impose prohibitively expensive adoption fees — even if the mother had just given birth and they had no role in the pregnancy or birth up to that moment, as was in his case.
“Two years ago this week, all of a sudden I’m getting text messages from my office, saying there’s a social worker who needs me to call her. Okay. I immediately assume I have a family member who needs bail money. I call the social worker and the first words out of her mouth were, ‘Are you going to come pick it up?’ Pick up what? Apparently the birth mother of the little girl we had adopted six years earlier had walked into the hospital, no prenatal care, substance abuse, and had a little boy. The little boy was very small, and going through withdrawals. […] One of the greatest things that’s ever happened in our lives. But before we were able to walk out of that hospital with him, turns out an adoption agency worker had gotten the birth mother to sign a piece of paper. Now remember, the birth mother had said, ‘Hey, the Schweikerts had adopted my little girl. This is the brother, wouldn’t that be nice if they could be together?’ We were told we had to sign a piece of paper for $40,000 before we were allowed to walk out the door with the baby because the baby belonged to adoption services. How does a middle class family adopt with these types of costs?”
Schweikert reflected on his experience to compare with Hilton’s testimony, which detailed her allegations of inhumane treatment at a congregate-care facility. The congressman concluded that the child welfare system suffers from financial greed.
“Mrs. Hilton actually said something that was brilliant. It’s about the money,” said Schweikert.
Yesterday, @ParisHilton bravely shared her traumatizing experience at a congregate-care facility with the Ways & Means Committee.
Having such a prominent voice express the flaws within the child welfare system is invaluable. pic.twitter.com/6RQkqlRteE
Hilton recounted how she was taken to a youth residential treatment facility at 16 years old. She testified that, under “troubled teen” programs promising “healing, growth, and support,” she had actually faced two years of physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.
Hilton testified she was force-fed medications, sexually abused by staff, violently restrained, dragged down hallways, stripped naked, forced in solitary confinement frequently, and deprived of views of the outside world.
“My parents were completely deceived, lied to, and manipulated by this for-profit industry about the inhumane treatment I was experiencing,” said Hilton. “Can you only imagine the experience for youth who are placed by the state and don’t have people regularly checking in on them?”
As reason for her testimony, Hilton advocated for the reauthorization of Title IV-B, a Social Security Act provision that created two child welfare programs with federal funding under two parts. Part 1 enacted Child Welfare Services while Part 2 enacted Promoting Safe and Stable Families.
Hilton also advocated for the Stop Institutional Child Abuse Act and again declared support for the Senate Finance Committee’s “Warehouses of Neglect” report.
This latest hearing of the Ways and Means Committee was the latest in a long string of hearings on the subject, more than any in the last eight congressional systems combined per the committee. The committee has been conducting a thorough review of Title IV-B over the past year.
Committee Chairman Jason Smith, a Missouri Republican, outlined a number of pervasive issues with the child welfare system: inadequate kinship care support, high social worker turnover, excessive bureaucratic red tape, slow hearings and lack of lawyer access for families, remaining barriers for Native American tribal families, high rates of mental health issues in older foster youth, and discrimination rather than support for impoverished families.
Watch Wednesday’s full hearing below:
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