GOP-backed Arizona ballot measures target voter initiatives

PHOENIX (AP) — Arizona voters who began mailing in their ballots after simply signing and dating the envelope in recent weeks might be doing so for the final time with that simple process.

That's because one of 10 measures they'll decide in the Nov. 8 midterm elections would change the rules for verifying that the people who mail in such ballots are who they say they are. Proposition 309 would also change how in-person voters are allowed to prove their identity.

Three other measures also placed on the ballot by Republicans who control the Legislature would make major changes to the citizen initiative process by making it harder for voters to bypass lawmakers and write their own laws. One would carve out major exemptions to the Voter Protection Act, which prevents the Legislature from changing voter-approved laws in most cases.

The four measures target early-voting and voter ID laws in the name of election security. They are priorities for Republicans, who have long chafed at the citizen initiative process.

The voting measure, Proposition 309, would require voters to write their birthdates and add state-issued voter identification numbers, driver license of identification numbers or a partial social security numbers to affidavits rather than just signing and dating them. The back-of-envelope signature used by many counties also would be changed to require that they be placed into a second envelope.

In-person voting requirements also would change, eliminating the ability of voters who don't have a state, tribal or federal government-issued photo ID on them to vote by presenting two alternate documents, such as a utility bill.

Democrats and voting rights groups note that citizenship and other requirements for voting are already done during the voter registration process...