Rep. Kavanagh and Sen. Quezada discuss the voter bills

March 18, 2021

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Arizona is gaining national attention for a load of GOP-backed bills making their way through State Legislature that involve mail-in ballots and also allow the Legislature to review the results of an election. Critics say the bills are an attempt to suppress voter turnout. Rep. John Kavanagh, a Republican from District 23, and Sen. Martin Quezada, a Democrat from District 29, gave us both sides of the issue.

We ask Sen. Quezada if there is voter fraud in Arizona. He said no. Representative Kavanagh said there is a serious perception among a large number of people. In Arizona, the representative said there may be some fraud. We ask if there is no massive fraud that would impact results, why is there such effort and so many bills. The representative said it’s overstated. He said because of technical reasons, they could not combine the bills into one bill so they are running it through the legislature. Quezada said the perceptions could be eliminated by representatives and Republican leaders telling that the people that the election was clean.

We ask what the representative meant by the “quality” of the vote. He explains himself on that and says people don’t deserve stolen ballots. He also said that if somebody is not interested in voting and doesn’t want a ballot sent to them, he believes they should respect the person and not “shove” a ballot at them. The senator said that he disagrees and that he believes they are trying to prevent some people from voting because they don’t like the way they are voting. Kavanagh disagrees with Quezada. The representative asked the senator why he wants to send early ballots to people that are dead or moved away. The senator said that it is because that is already being done. But the representative says it is not being done.