REQUEST TO SPEAK: Oppose voter suppression bills at Arizona Legislature

Arizona GOP making hurdles for voters 

Why do Request to Speak? There some good bills and some bad bills being heard in committees at the State Legislature starting Monday. Bills have to go through certain committees before they can be heard and voted on the floor of the House or Senate. Sometimes, just sometimes, we can stop bad bills from going to a vote on the House or Senate floor by killing them in committee. One way to do that is to weigh in on the Request to Speak system on the Arizona State Legislature website by choosing FOR or AGAINST. You need to weigh in before or while the bills are still in committee. That is why I include when the bill is being heard in a particular committee below. 

(See Request to Speak directions at the bottom of this page.) 

There are some bad bills that make it harder for Arizonans to vote being heard in Senate Committee on Government on Monday AND in the House Committee on Government & Elections on Wednesday. I suggest you weigh into all these at the same time. 

Coming Up at the Arizona Legislature this Week

Monday, January 24th

Senate Committee on Government at 2:00 PM

 
SB1012 registration database; federal voters; report (Townsend) requires the Secretary of State (SOS) to provide access to the statewide voter database to a legislative designee and the attorney general's election integrity unit to assess compliance with federal laws regarding voters who are registered as eligible to vote only for federal offices. This is unnecessary and feeds more of the paranoia about elections. OPPOSE.
SB1013 secretary of state; federal form (Townsend) requires the Secretary of State, by the end of this year, to submit a request to the U.S. Election Assistance Commission to include Arizona's proof of citizenship on the federal voter registration form. OPPOSE.
SB1028 ballot paper; security measures (Rogers) requires "fraud countermeasures" for ballots to include at least 3 of 10 on the list including ultraviolet numbering or designs, holographs, etc. OPPOSE.
SB1054 election equipment; security; legislative review (Townsend) requires a detailed review of election equipment security for Maricopa and Pima counties every two years.
SB1055 election process; contractors and contracts (Townsend) makes contractors that provide election-related equipment or services and fail to perform under the terms of the contract liable for liquidated damages.
SB1056 misplaced ballots; invalidity; misdemeanor; damages (Townsend) says any misplaced ballots not included in the initial tally at a polling place to be invalid and makes misplacing a ballot a class 2 misdemeanor. This disenfranchises voters and will also make it impossible to get poll workers. OPPOSE
SB1119 electronic ballot images; public record. (Borrelli: Fann, Townsend, et al) requires online copies of any digital ballot images to be made searchable and asserts that ballot images are public records.
SB1120 ballot fraud countermeasures; paper; ink. (Borrelli: Barto, Fann, et al) is more holograms on ballots, among other requirements. OPPOSE.
SB1133 schools; cities; all mail prohibited (Rogers) prohibits a city, town or school district from conducting a mail ballot election. Ridiculous. OPPOSE.
SCR1005 federal ballot voters; identification (Townsend) refers to the ballot a measure to require federal-only voters to show proof of citizenship at the polls, stricter than the voter ID requirements for all other voters. OPPOSE.

Wednesday, January 26th

House Committee on Government & Elections at 9:00 AM 

HB2237 same day voter registration; prohibition (Hoffman) prohibits same day voter registration, even though we do not have it anyway. We should. OPPOSE.
HB2238 ballot drop boxes; prohibition (Hoffman) prohibits counties from using unmonitored drop boxes for early voting. This is unnecessary. OPPOSE.
HB2243 voter registration; state residency; cancellation (Hoffman) requires insertion of a statement on the voter registration form that if someone moves to another state, their registration will be canceled. OPPOSE

DIRECTIONS FOR REQUEST TO SPEAK ACTIONS

Sign On to your Request to Speak account, click the blue Request to Speak button, click on New Request in the nav bar (left column), then simply cut and paste the bill number into Search Phrase (for example:SB1150). Push blue Add Request button, weigh in FOR or AGAINST, click No on Do you wish to speak? (in person), leave a short Comment, and click on SUBMIT. For another submission, click on the New Request link in the nav bar on the left and follow the directions above. 

If you had an account with RTS previously, it is still active. If you do not have an account, go ahead and set one up, but someone will have to help you activate it as it requires going to the Capitol. Reach out to Civic Engagement Beyond Voting.