Republican AZ Superintendant of Public Instruction
Tom Horne asked school administrators to monitor all voters entering polling places on school campuses, including requiring ID to enter and mandatory sign-ins, both contrary to State and federal law.
These measures are justified by Horne on the basis of a memo from the Education Dept. recommending enhanced school security in the wake of the Chechen school massacre.
Voting rights proponents note that these security measures violate the law and do not serve to respond to any specific or credible threat to school security. About a third of AZ polling stations are now, and historically have been on school campuses without any additional security measures taken in the past, including 2002 mid-term elections following 9/11.
The recommendation by Horne is not binding upon school administrators, but the fact that this directive could be used as justification by individual school officials to violate the law and restrict voter access to polling places is very troubling. The measures which could be justified by this policy include not only ID checks and sign-ins to access polling places, but greatly enhanced and high-visibility police prescence at schools, or even searches.
The policy gives an appearance of contributing to efforts by the GOP to supress voter turn-out for the coming election across the nation and especially in swing states.