San Marcos Dems’ Michael Allen writes about Arizona Dems’ efforts! SMDems can help this happen and maybe get more states onboard.
Arizona activists are gathering signatures for a sweeping Voting Rights Initiative for the 2022 ballot. The effort appears to be led by Neighbors Forward AZ which is a 501(c)4 and has a link to Act Blue.
“A grassroots push to put a sweeping Voting Rights Initiative on the 2022 Arizona ballot will push back on phony expensive audits, prevent theft of electoral votes and protect right of Native American to participate in Democracy.” EricAZ
Because this initiative would result in a constitutional amendment, the Republican state legislature could not overturn any of its provisions. Which include:
- Complete roll backs of voter suppression laws which were recently passed by the Republican led Arizona state government.
- Expansion of voting rights through mandated early voting, drop boxes, same day registration, etc. Also allows neighbors to deliver ballots on behalf of a family member or friend. This is very important in Arizona’s large Indian reservations where postal facilities can be dozens or even a hundred miles away round trip.
- Prohibits the state legislature from awarding the states presidential electors to the loser of the popular vote in Arizona
- Creates a felony for any non-governmental entity – such as bogus auditing firms hired by the Republican state legislature – to possess any ballots or state-owned voting machines or technology.
If this Initiative passed, Arizona would no longer vulnerable to Republicans stealing its electoral votes in 2024. And this would be a big step forward to ensuring the 2024 election is free and fair.
The initiative effort has been getting coverage on Daily Kos. Blogger “EricAZ” has posted several articles about the effort. The organization, Arizona Deserves Better, is leading some of the signature efforts, and “EricAZ” seems to be a leader and major contributor to this Pac.
I messaged “Eric AZ” to inquire if he or someone from his group would be willing to speak to Democratic Clubs in San Diego County. This could result in some volunteers and donations for the Initiative effort. But he did not reply. Perhaps this is because this Super Pac cannot work directly with the Democratic Party.
However, the Arizona Democratic Party has unanimously endorsed the effort on January 23, 2022. And I also emailed the Arizona Democratic Party to ask if someone would be interested in speaking to San Marcos Dems via Zoom. But I have not received a response.
If we are unable to get a response from either the Super Pac or the Arizona Democratic Party, I could put together a simple Zoom presentation about the Initiative and share it at an upcoming meeting. But we would have to schedule it soon. The deadline for signatures is July 7th.
ATTN SMDEMS: If you are interested in hearing more about this grassroots effort, having a Zoom, please email publicity@sanmarcosdems.org Click HERE to volunteer for this effort.
Below are two links to coverage on Daily Kos. User “Eric Az” has several other articles on Daily Kos: