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Today, House Government & Elections will hear HB2569 (elections; private funding; prohibition). The bill, perhaps more than any other this session, speaks to the moment (and trouble) we’re in. I’ll explain. 1/
Elections officials, including @SecretaryHobbs, warned of the threat of election misinformation all last year. @NassOrg even had an entire campaign around it 2/ https://www.nass.org/initiatives/trustedinfo-2020
The Secretary of State’s Office developed a plan for a voter education campaign to combat misinformation ahead of the election using HAVA funds. After some lobbying from AG Brnovich, the legislature took that money away. 3/ https://azcapitoltimes.com/news/2020/06/25/gop-lawmakers-bypass-democrat-hobbs-to-disburse-elections-money/
Essentially, the legislature did not want the Secretary of State to spend money educating voters on Arizona’s voting processes, laws, and where to find accurate information about elections. 4/
Here’s what @SecretaryHobbs said after that vote. Note: …“this office will continue to move forward regardless of these partisan games.” 5/
And the Office *did* move forward—funding a public education campaign with a private grant. The campaign informed voters of things like: voting options, registering to vote, the ballot tabulation process, etc. 6/
Here's an example:
https://www.arizona.vote/img/tools-and-resources/AZSOS_Verification_Process_WEB_1.mp4
Here's an example:
https://www.arizona.vote/img/tools-and-resources/AZSOS_Verification_Process_WEB_1.mp4
We’ve now, of course, seen the effect that misinformation has had. We saw an attempted insurrection. Here in Arizona, legislators are threatening county officials with arrest, hoping to satisfy constituents taken in by misinfo. 7/
Legislators have introduced a flood of bills that add barriers and burdens for voters and elections administrators, frequently citing the need to “restore confidence” as a justification 8/
Which brings us back to HB2569. The bill would prohibit the use of private funds related to elections. This means in the future, the legislature truly could prevent the Secretary of State from combatting misinformation. 9/
The sponsor of the bill is Jake Hoffman (LD-12). Why is that important? See here, from @LaurieRoberts: 10/ https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/op-ed/laurieroberts/2020/11/23/jake-hoffman-deceived-voters-now-serve-house-election-committee/6361721002/
From that piece: “Hoffman’s Rally Forge, a digital marketing firm that paid teenagers, some of them minors, to set up fake personas and blanket social media with thousands of nearly identical posts aimed at undermining confidence in the validity of election” 11/
And the bill is cosponsored by 29 other House Republicans. That’s a full 50% of the Arizona House. What does this say about the lessons that elected leaders have learned over the past few months? 12/
Attacks on voting rights in the aftermath of this are, unfortunately, expected. Many of these things have long been priorities of the majority. But after an attempted insurrection, legislators want to handcuff elections officials so they can’t fight future misinformation? 13/
This bill says all too much about some elected leaders’ vision for the future of our democracy. 14/14
