National Democrats will support the fight to overturn a controversial election-law overhaul signed by Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said Friday. Wasserman Schultz called the Arizona legislation, House Bill 2305, an attempt at intimidation and an example of “Republican efforts to do everything they can to throw obstacles in the path of voters who simply want an opportunity to cast their ballot and exercise their right to vote.” An effort to refer the state law to the ballot is under way. “We’re organizing here and across the country to fight voter-suppression efforts at every turn,” Wasserman Schultz told The Arizona Republic. “Where lawsuits are necessary, we’ll engage in them. We are providing staff and resources on the ground and working with allied groups to fight these voter-suppression efforts.”
In June, a Brewer spokesman defended the Arizona legislation to The Republic as “a critical election-reform bill” supported by county elections officials statewide and downplayed the charges of voter disenfranchisement.
Wasserman Schultz, a U.S. representative from Florida, was in Scottsdale last week for the DNC’s summer meeting. The two-day session was held Thursday and Friday at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess resort.
Wasserman Schultz singled out for special criticism a provision in the Arizona law that puts restrictions on the ability of someone to pick up and turn in the early ballot of another voter. Anyone working at the direction of a political party or organization is prohibited from delivering another voter’s ballot to a polling place.
“What’s really disturbing about Arizona and the step that Republicans here have taken is that they are making it harder for the elderly and for the disabled to cast a mail-in ballot,” she said.
Full Article: DNC targets Arizona election-law overhaul.