Ocean State Today

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) recently accused the conservative policy advocacy organization Heritage Action of supporting voter suppression in Arizona and other states.

"We know @Heritage_Action as a dark money climate denial operation," Whitehouse wrote in a May 13 Twitter post. "We see Heritage in the dark money court capture operation, filing anonymously funded briefs. Now they turn up in voter suppression, the latest dark money operation to attack and degrade our democracy."

In May, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, signed legislation that he said would uphold the integrity of elections, protect Arizona voters and simplify the voting process.

Under Senate Bill 1485, the state's list of early voters that automatically receive early ballots will be updated to remove voters who have not returned an early ballot within the previous four years and don't respond to a final notice asking if they still want to receive an early ballot.

Heritage commended the bill's passing among other election security bills, releasing a statement saying “Heritage Action applauds the Arizona Legislature for prioritizing election integrity and passing several important pieces of legislation that will make it easier to vote and harder to cheat in the state of Arizona. Each of these bills strengthens Arizona’s elections, ensuring that the process is secure and transparent. We thank the Arizona legislators who voted to secure their state’s elections and Gov. Ducey for signing these important bills into law.”

Conservatives say the Rhode Island senator's allegations of voter suppression are questionable in light of the Ocean State's own voting policies, which in some ways are similar or more restrictive than Arizona's.

Rhode Island is among the many Northeastern states that limit the time in which opponents can rally a base through policies that prevent most early voting. According to an Atlantic commentary from Russell Berman, “Democrats who have won election after election in states such as New York, Delaware, Connecticut, and Rhode Island have had little incentive to change the rules that helped them win.”

Rhode Island has barely 1 million people while Arizona's population is more than 7 million.

Berman adds that Rhode Island enacted a substantially restrictive voter ID law 10 years ago with support from “powerful black elected leaders.” The state also requires two witnesses when submitting an absentee ballot. Rhode Island Democrats have discussed repealing the requirement that absentee ballots have two witness signatures and expanding voting by mail and early voting, but is unlikely to amend voter ID system.

Rhode Island and Arizona are among 36 states requiring voters to show a form of identification at the polls, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. 

Vote 411 states that Arizona allows for no-excuse absentee voting, and sends out absentee ballots 27 days before Election Day. According to the First State Times, Arizona does not allow ballot harvesting, voting by felons, the reception of mail-in ballots after Election Day, automatic voter registration, or same day voter registration. Similarly, Arizona mandates that voters must show photo ID or two forms of non-photo ID to cast a ballot.

A NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll shows that of 1,115 adults, 79% of respondents believe voters should be required to show government-issued photo identification.

Democrats and progressives argue that the only reason Arizona enacted laws to change its voting laws is because former President Donald Trump was the first Republican presidential candidate to lose the state since 1996. He then issued bogus claims of voter fraud.