Having provided Joe Biden and Sen. Mark Kelly with their margins of victory in the 2020 election, Native Americans are at the heart of the voting rights battle in Arizona. Right-wing extremists and white nationalists have introduced more than 100 voter suppression bills in the Arizona Legislature, hoping to stop Natives from voting. The Arizonans for Fair Elections initiative protects Native voters and broadens the franchise in important ways.
Biden won Arizona by 11,000 votes and the increase in Native turnout was many times the margin of victory. So, the right wing really doesn’t want Natives to vote. Arizona Deserves Better, a member of the coalition supporting the initiative, is responsible for collecting 60,000 signatures using volunteers by the end of June. Other parts of the coalition will employ paid circulators to get the remainder of the 240,000 signatures required to get the measure on the 2022 ballot.
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Parts of the Initiative particularly important to Natives include:
--requires consultation with Tribes on voting locations,
--allows for counting ballots postmarked by election day,
--allows individuals to help turn in ballots for others,
--allows five business days for curing missing signatures on mail ballots,
--allows for voting in any county precinct,
--allows for multi-county agreements to accommodate voting on reservations that cover more than one county,
Some of these measures have been a long time coming. Arizona Secretary of State Katy Hobbs settled a lawsuit with the Navajo Nation to allow the curing period for missing signatures. State Attorney General Mark Brnovich broke the promise to the Natives, refusing to allow the new rule to be placed in the Elections Procedures Manual. The Initiative would override Brnovich.
Allowing individuals to help turn in ballots for others has a long legal history. The Legislature outlawed the practice, the bad law was overturned by many courts, but the U.S. Supreme Court ultimately weighed in for voter suppression. The Initiative removes the statute from Arizona law so there is nothing for the Supreme Court to uphold.
The measures of special interest to Natives are in addition to automatic voter registration, election-day registration, restoring and protecting mail voting, cracking down on lobbyists who are buying legislators and campaign finance reform. Oh, and it prevents the Legislature from stealing the state’s electoral votes. Trump’s lawyers had scoped Arizona out as one of the two easiest targets to steal electoral votes. The Initiative requires that the electoral votes go to the election winner.
In an alternate universe way, multiple extremists in the Legislature are running for secretary of state, claiming they will deliver the most voter suppression. As many as 90% of Arizonans use mail ballots, but the Legislature is proposing to abolish the Permanent Early Voting List (PEVL).
Arizona is one of three states where major voting rights are being pursued this year. The others are Michigan and Ohio.
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Secretary of State Katy Hobbs, running for governor, addressed the Initiative at a recent meeting of progressive activists. She said that while as the state’s chief election officer she does not endorse ballot measures, that something like the Initiative is needed.
Why is it needed? The Radical Right has taken over the Arizona legislature, and they are creating many new barriers to voting for Arizona citizens. They’re even trying to eliminate Vote By Mail.
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Our website is AzDeservesBetter.org
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