As the Jan. 6 Committee exposes how close right-wing fanatics came in 2020 to actually stealing the electoral votes of swing states, Arizona is moving forward with one of the first important steps to make sure electoral votes are cast for the winning candidate in presidential elections.
The whole world now knows that ultra-screwball lawyer John Eastman sold Trump on a plan to work with right-wing legislatures to get the electoral votes that Biden won in swing states. What we didn’t know until very recently is that Eastman begged for a pardon because he knows that what he tried is illegal.
Arizona addresses the Eastman plot, and any similar scheme, in two ways in the Fair Elections Act which is headed toward the November ballot. First, the new voting law states that the winner of the election in Arizona will receive the electoral votes. That is a big deal, because it is very difficult for the Legislature to overturn a law created by the citizens through the Initiative process. They can only do it with a three-fourths vote of both chambers and then only if they can show they are furthering the intent of the Initiative. (They couldn’t get a three-fourths vote in the Legislature for a bill that says Tuesday will be known as Tuesday.)
But in the bizarre world of Eastman and other Federalist Society hacks, the “unitary” Legislature has magic powers that allows them to do whatever they want regardless of the state constitution. To combat that theory, the Initiative requires the Legislature to make any changes to the method of choosing electors before Jan. 1 of an election year. The Legislature won’t be able to move the goal posts while the game is in progress, and definitely not after the election race is run.
We are in the final process of gathering signatures for the Initiative. We have more than the 238,000 we need to turn in by July 7, but we are working hard on increasing our number to 400,000 to cover any challenges the opposition might mount.
If you would like to volunteer for the final days of the campaign, please reach out to us at this link. secure.everyaction.com/... ,
If you would like to contribute please go to ActBlue To volunteer, go to secure.everyaction.com/... ,
The Initiative does a lot more than protect the electoral votes. It creates automatic voter registration through the driver’s license/state ID process. It also allows people to register up through election day and extends early voting up to election day. It also asks the Secretary of State to create a program to register high school students who will be old enough to vote in the next general election.
Quite a few provisions are geared toward protecting Native Americans. Ballots postmarked by election day will be valid and there is a period to “cure” questioned ballots. For Natives and all Arizonans, the Initiative blocks various legislative plots to do away with mail voting.
People are a little skeptical because the Legislature has been devious in tampering with citizen Initiatives. We tried to make this one bullet proof. For example, the Fair Elections Act says a signature on a mail ballot envelope is “sufficient” for the ballot to be counted. The legislature could enact other laws requiring photocopies of IDs to be stuffed into the envelope, but the signature would remain “sufficient” for the ballot to be counted despite any extraneous requirements the legislature tried to enact.
If you would like to help, please contribute at ActBlue or mail a check to Arizona Deserves Better, c/o Eric Kramer, 1910 Douglas Fir Dr., Pinetop, AZ 85935. To volunteer, go to secure.everyaction.com/... ,
We would like to get all outstanding signatures turned in by the end of June. There is a possibility we will collect more signatures during the first few days of July, but it is important to get everything we have turned in now. We don’t want any petitions left sitting on the back seat or someone’s car.
We are very pleased that our friends at Stop Dark Money and Healthcare Rising are also doing very well with their initiatives. Stop Dark Money will require that all campaign contributions are disclosed back to their original source. The Arizona Predatory Debt Collection Protection Act lowers the interest rate that can be charged on medical debt and prohibits abusive debt collection practices.