Don't let Arizona become another Wisconsin. Set rules now to handle election emergencies

Amid the COVID-19 crisis, a functional democracy is vital more than ever. Voters should not need to choose between casting their ballot and protecting their health. State and local election officials need to work now to ensure voters can do both.

There’s no question that how we vote will change while we are under the cloud of COVID-19, but problems and emergencies arise in all circumstances.

Now more than ever, voters, poll workers, and officials are faced with the question: What’s our plan?

Creating stability and confidence in our elections is not a partisan issue. The Arizona Legislature, Gov. Doug Ducey, and Secretary of State Katie Hobbs must take political gamesmanship out of the equation by agreeing to nonpolitical, written standards that set out specific and objective criteria for modifying elections when emergencies hit.

Mail elections are nice but no panacea

We’re seeing efforts, both nationally and locally, to increase vote by mail. On the Friday before the Presidential Preference Election, Maricopa County Recorder Adrian Fontes announced plans to mail ballots to all voters that had not yet voted; this action was stopped by Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, citing that Fontes did not have the legal authority to do so.

Hobbs is urging legislators to allow counties to move to primarily vote by mail elections as the COVID-19 emergency escalates. Most recently, elections officials in all 15 counties echoed this call for primarily mail elections, dispelling concerns about voting by mail.

While expanding access to mail-in ballots is the right thing to do, it is not a panacea.

For instance, Native American Arizonans face troubling barriers to casting a ballot by mail: While nearly 75% of Arizonans vote by mail, only 18% of voters on reservations outside Maricopa and Pima counties have access to at-home mail delivery. In addition, access to in-person translators are essential for some Native American voters, such as speakers of Navajo or Apache which are traditionally oral languages.

Some still face voting barriers

Adequate in-person voting opportunities, language assistance, and other accessibility measures must be provided to ensure that voters already facing barriers to the ballot — voters with disabilities, low income-voters, voters in rural areas and Native American voters — are not silenced.

No matter how the election process is adjusted to address voting issues spurred by COVID-19 concerns, officials need to have a clear, just, and fair process for decision making concerning election administration, and must ensure that they are directly communicating changes to voters through every tool at their disposal.

Now is the time for Arizona lawmakers, Ducey and Hobbs to look at current policy and determine what can be done, and who has the power to do it, when voting issues arise. And in those areas where no clear authority exists, they need to create a nonpolitical solution through prompt emergency action.

What if we move to greater reliance on mail and there are postal disruptions? What if the in-person options for those individuals needing accommodations are plagued by long lines?

Having rules for emergencies is critical

How Arizona resolves these problems must be uniform for voters throughout Arizona, so that every voice is heard and every ballot is counted. Creating a clear, objective, nonpolitical process for making these decisions in an emergency is critical.

Let’s empower Hobbs and Ducey to make these decisions in collaboration — and with the assistance of emergency court action, if necessary, to ensure impartiality and fairness.

Voters are doing everything in their power to have their voices heard, but our failure to plan for Election Day emergencies threatens their ability to participate in our democracy. What we saw in Wisconsin on April 7 should be a warning to Arizonans.

No matter how we vote, let’s prevent any guesswork, confusion or fear on Election Day. Voters of all political stripes deserve to have their voices heard. Now is the time to banish partisanship from our emergency election plans and protect our democracy for all Arizona voters.

Alex Gulotta is Arizona state director of All Voting is Local, which fights for the right to vote through a combination of community power building, data driven advocacy and strategic communications. Reach him at Alex@AllVotingisLocal.org.