When all else fails, cry racism. That seems to be the playbook the Far-Left utilizes any time it can’t make a coherent argument against election integrity laws. And here we are once again. The latest accusations of racism come amidst a series of depositions along with closing arguments in a lawsuit filed by a cabal of liberal organizations against two commonsense voter registration laws: HB 2243 and HB 2492.
Passed in 2022 and signed by then-Governor Ducey, HB 2243 ensures that only eligible voters remain registered by requiring regular voter roll maintenance. And so far, it has proven to be effective—revealing that over 78,000 individuals have been identified on Arizona’s voter rolls as either noncitizens or nonresidents. When you consider how close some of our state’s races were in 2022, these numbers should be great cause for alarm. But of course, many of those close races went in favor of Democrats, so the Left doesn’t want to ask too many questions.
HB 2492, which was also passed in 2022 and signed by then-Governor Ducey, bolsters safeguards to our voter registration process to require proof of citizenship ensuring that only U.S. citizens are voting in our elections. Where’s the controversy here? U.S. citizens cannot go into France, Australia, or any other country throughout the world and vote in their elections, so why should citizens from other countries be allowed to vote in our elections?
Not too long after both bills were signed into law, the Left filed a lawsuit against them and recently made a part of the proceedings about…the Arizona Free Enterprise Club (who is not a party in the lawsuit). That’s right. After apparently failing to construct sound legal arguments against HB 2243 and HB 2492, they have now embarked on a fishing expedition to harass the Club with ridiculous lawfare subpoenas. They spent countless hours deposing Senate President Warren Petersen and House Speaker Ben Toma in an effort to convince the judge that our organization was inappropriately exerting influence to pass both bills in a “racially-charged manner.” One Leftist group even submitted a claim complaining that the Free Enterprise Club is just too big and powerful and had an “outsized influence” on the process.
But contrary to the claims made by the Left, it was never a secret that the Club was involved in crafting and advocating for both bills. In fact, our role was out in the open, evident by the many articles we wrote on each bill (See here, here, here, and here for a sample.) On top of that, we testified in support of both bills at the legislature.
And after all this harassment, depositions, review of documents, and more, do you want to know what their “proof” is that these bills were racially motivated? In one of our articles, we used the word “Illegals” when explaining the need to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote. That’s it. That’s their big smoking gun.
The fact that these absurd racism charges have become a focal point of their lawsuit only demonstrates how weak the Left’s case is against these laws.
These Far-Left groups know that they can attacks us with lawfare subpoenas, allege that our policy and advocacy efforts at the legislature are somehow nefarious, and make despicable accusations that our activities are racially motivated (with no evidence) because we can’t defend ourselves. So rather than engaging on policy or legal merits, the Left once again resorts to impugning our organization, hoping that some of the mud it’s slinging will stick.
As we have stated all along, these commonsense and reasonable laws are strong and necessary in a nation where more and more people are losing trust in the U.S. election system. That’s why the Arizona legislature passed them. That’s why then-Governor Ducey signed them. And that’s why Arizona’s election system has improved and will continue to improve with these laws on the books.
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