Blake Masters always votes by mail
Blake Masters always votes by mail
Blake Masters is just another Republican candidate who has no problem voting by mail, but doesn't want others to do so.
In last night’s Arizona Senate debate on Arizona PBS between Senator Mark Kelly, the Democrat, Blake Masters, the Republican, and Marc Victor, the Libertarian, Masters went after the state’s vote by mail system –– a system which he utilizes exclusively.
Masters at first said, “I believe in Election Day, not election season,” but his voter file shows he’s never actually voted on Election Day while he was registered to vote in Arizona.
Masters is on the Active Early Voting List and has been since he registered to vote in the state again in August 2018 (after living several years in California). He was previously registered to vote in 2004 and removed himself in 2011, his file shows.
He did vote early and by mail in the 2004 general election and the 2010 general election.
He was briefly an independent in 2004 when he first registered, switched to Republican in 2007, became an inactive voter in 2009, but then reinstated in May 2010.
Records from the Pima County Recorder’s Office also show when his ballots were received by the county election’s department and none of them would signify he dropped them off on Election Day either. So he’s a fan of so-called “election season.”
This is significant because of his further debate remarks.
“I support absentee ballots for military service members,” he said, which isn’t an endorsement of allowing everybody in the state to vote by mail if they choose to do so. Something at least 80% of Arizona voters choose to do.
Something Masters chooses to do. (Masters has never served in the military and therefore, under his suggestion, would not be allowed to vote by mail.)
He did say “no” when asked directly if he wants to take away vote by mail, but I think this is splitting hairs between absentee for military members only and no-excuse absentee, which Arizona currently has and has had for decades.
Masters then walked his stance back a bit saying if a “suburban housewife,” as moderator Ted Simons suggested, wanted to vote by mail, he thinks that’s fine as long as she shows proof of ID with her mail in ballot.1
While this isn’t anywhere near the claims made by GOP Secretary of State candidate Mark Finchem who lied about always voting at the polls, it still falls under the umbrella of wanting to change the state’s election system because of made up claims of widespread election fraud2 in the 2020 election.
Claims Masters has repeatedly pushed in order to get Trump’s endorsement for the primary. Claims that have all been debunked, but didn’t prevent Masters from voting by mail in his own election in August where his signature was verified on July 29, four days before Election Day.
So Masters still thinks it’s safe enough to vote by mail and to not vote on Election Day.3
For those keeping track:
Masters is on AEVL and always votes by mail and early
Kari Lake, the GOP candidate for governor, is on the early voting list and votes by mail
Finchem voted by mail in 28 of 30 elections, but took himself off the early voting list
Proposition 309 on the ballot would require voters to write their birthdate, ID number and signature on a “concealed early ballot affidavit” before returning the ballot either through the mail or a drop off center. Similar to Masters’ proposal.
It’s important to differentiate between fraud, which does occur, and widespread fraud, which does not. The “big lie” surrounds “widespread” which would amount to enough to overturn an election. Candidates try to pivot away because the two terms have mistakenly been used interchangeably.
Had Masters dropped his ballot off on Election Day, it would have not been counted the first night. This is called a “late-early” ballot and is usually what holds up the election count for days after voting ends and why final results will never be known the night of.