One great Minneapolis show down, one to go. Bill and the gang had a great time meeting folks in Minnesota last night; Andrew stewed sadly in his FOMO back east. See another chunk of you out there tonight. Happy Thursday.

Don’t Call It Intimidation

by Andrew Egger

In 2022, Democrat Katie Hobbs beat Republican Kari Lake in the race for Arizona governor. As a result, Arizonans will not have to walk past ICE agents posted at polling stations to vote in this year’s midterm elections.

Maybe that overstates things a hair. Let’s back up.

This week, two Republican Arizona state senators, Jake Hoffman and Wendy Rogers, introduced legislation that would require county election officials to coordinate with “a federal immigration law enforcement agency” to ensure “a federal immigration law enforcement presence at each location within this state where ballots are cast and deposited.”

In simpler terms: inviting ICE to the polls. The legislation is scheduled to be heard tomorrow in the Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee, which Rogers chairs.

“Arizonans deserve to know that election laws are not just written in statute but actually enforced in practice,” Hoffman said in a statement. “For too long, confusion, inconsistency, and a lack of visible accountability have fueled doubts about how elections are administered. . . . The intent is to deter violations before they happen, ensure existing laws are followed, and protect the rights of every lawful voter.”

Hoffman and Rogers have claimed that their proposal would not interfere with legal voting since it would not allow ICE “to question, detain, or arrest a voter solely for the purpose of determining voter eligibility, except as otherwise allowed under state or federal law.” Because if there’s one law enforcement body with a great track record of refraining from pretextual stops over things like skin color and accent, it’s ICE.

If the goal is just to get more law-enforcement eyeballs on voting precincts, why tap in immigration enforcement in particular? I emailed Hoffman and Rogers yesterday to ask this; neither responded.

Not all state Republicans are thrilled by the proposal. “This is no doubt an attempt at pure intimidation of the Latino voting community,” Arizona GOP strategist Barrett Marson told The Bulwark, adding sarcastically: “From a political standpoint, nothing says ‘We are trying to attract more Latinos into voting for Republicans’ like showing how we can suppress