Tell legislators: Protect Citizen's Initiatives and Voting Advocates

Tomorrow both chambers are really amping up their wars on democracy. 

The Arizona Legislature is about to vote on a series of extreme measures that would make grassroots ballot initiatives almost impossible.   It's all expected to happen at 10 am tomorrow. 

These bills, SB1451 and SCR1023/HCR2005, would hugely increase the cost & difficulty of the initiative process, and would essentially give the residents of any legislative district in Arizona the ability to veto an initiative before it even got to the ballot.

Minimum wage initiatives? Gone. Pro-education initiatives? Gone. Anti-corruption initiatives? Gone.

Politicians may not always agree with voters. But that doesn't mean they should attack our constitutional right to participate in direct democracy and make our voices heard.

Protect your rights! Make a quick call to your state legislators now and tell them to vote NO on any bills that interfere with the ballot initiative process. 

SCR1023 and HCR2005, the bills requiring initiatives to get a certain number of signatures from EVERY legislative district, will be debated on the Senate & House floor tomorrow. These bills would be referred to the ballot for voter’s approval in 2020 – and would be the ballot measure to end all ballot measures. The requirements laid out in both bills represent the MOST EXTREME HURDLE of its kind anywhere in the country. By doing so, this would make it easier to get something on the ballot in Scottsdale than in Maryvale – rather than treating voters equally.

SB1451, stricter requirements for initiatives, is ALSO going to be debated on the House floor.

And as if that wasn’t enough – so is HB2616, the bill that would criminalize voter registration volunteers.

IF YOU CAN DRIVE CALLS TO YOUR LEGISLATORS, PLEASE DO and ask them to VOTE NO on ALL of the above bills. Find your legislator and a convenient call script HERE.

Script: 

My name is [your name] and I am a voter in your district. I am calling to ask you to vote NO on SB1451 and SCR1023/HCR2005, which would make grassroots ballot initiatives almost impossible.

- Arizona Advocacy Network and Foundation
http://www.azadvocacy.org/

Citizen's Initiatives or Dark Money? Protect our right to be heard. Call your legislators now!

Democracy is on the line today: the House is trying to restrict citizens' initiatives while the Senate is (yet again) going after Clean Elections.

 It's time to call our state legislators!  If you've already called, thank you. Please, call again. We can't let them take away our right to be heard and enact laws that benefit the people of Arizona. 

SB 1451: Places even more technical restrictions on the citizen's initiative process and makes it easier for special interests to invalidate entire sheets of signatures automatically or toss them out in court. Make no mistake these types of restrictions make direct democracy for Arizonans even harder and further opens the door to out of state billionaires to take over the initiative process. CONTACT YOUR REPRESENTATIVE and ask them to VOTE NO on SB 1451. 

HB 2724: The bill would create new avenues for dark money groups and other bad actors to evade enforcement by the Clean Elections Commission. On top of inviting even more dark money into Arizona, HB 2724 could jeopardize the entire scope of the Commission’s work including their voter education and outreach programs. CONTACT YOUR SENATOR and ask them to VOTE NO on HB 2724. 

-Arizona Advocacy Network and Foundation
http://www.azadvocacy.org/

 CONTACT YOUR REPS!

To find out who your Representative is, find your district here.

Use that district number to look up your Rep here.

Urge Legislators to oppose bills that make it harder to vote in AZ

ARIZONA: Our fight to defend democracy continues!

Republicans in the state legislature have introduced a flurry of bills to make it more difficult to qualify ballot initiatives and register voters. Their strategy is simple: they’ve seen the power of the grassroots so they want to limit that power however they can.

We’ve succeeded in knocking back several bills that would undermine the democratic process in Arizona. But the battle rages on! Last week, Republicans quietly and quickly jammed a bill through the Senate that would purge early voters if they missed two elections. At the same time, the legislature is still trying to move bills to make ballot initiatives and voter registration more difficult. But we can still stop these bills. Here’s what we’re fighting this week:

SB 1188: Purges early voters from the permanent early voter list if they miss two elections.

SB 1451: Creates unnecessary burdens for volunteers who collect ballot initiative petition signatures.

HB 2616: Makes it a crime to register voters as part of your job.

More information on bills here. 

- Indivisible

To find out who your Representatives are, first find your district:

https://azredistricting.org/districtlocator/

Then use that district to find your state Reps:

https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/

Sample Scripts:

For Republican House Representatives:

Hello, my name is________________ and I am a constituent of Representative __________ from <YOUR TOWN>. I’m calling to express my concern about several bills that would undermine democracy in our state. SB 1451 would place onerous burdens on signature gatherers, SB 1090 will make emergency voting more difficult, HB 2616 would criminalize voter registration, and SB 1188 will disenfranchise a quarter million early voters. We should be facilitating access to voting, voter registration, and ballot initiatives, not making it more difficult. Can I count on Representative ___________ to vote NO SB 1451, SB 1090, HB 2616, and SB 1188 in the House?

Look up your state Senator:

https://www.azleg.gov/MemberRoster/?body=S

For Republican Senators (except Heather Carter)

Hello, my name is ______________ and I am a constituent of Senator __________ from <YOUR TOWN>. I want to express my severe disappointment that Senator ____________voted in favor of SB 1188 last week. SB 1188 will disenfranchise hundreds of thousands of voters and we should be making it as easy as possible for people to participate in our democratic process. I will remember this vote in the next election.

Oppose bills in State Legislature that will make ballot initiatives and voting harder

Since Arizona became a state in 1912, voters from all sides of the political spectrum have used the initiative process to advance important policy when politicians failed to act. Now, our legislators are going after this constitutional right!

The Arizona State Senate is voting on a proposal that would make it nearly impossible for grassroots groups to put an initiative on the ballot. SCR1023 and SB1451 would increase the difficulty and cost of placing an initiative on the ballot, making it impossible for average citizens to have their voices heard. This places an undue burden on citizen’s constitutional right to direct democracy and silences voters. Make a quick call to your state senator now and tell them to vote NO on SCR1023 and SB1451.

On the bright side, SCR 1023, the bill that would make the initiative process even more burdensome for Arizonans was held on the Senate floor yesterday. The bill is still very much alive in the process, but this is a sign that all of your calls and emails are working! 

Call your Senator and help us keep the pressure up!

For a quick way to get the number you need to call, click here.

SB 1072, which would impose a physical ID requirement on in-person early voting, will be heard on Tuesday afternoon in the House Elections Committee.  

If you live in any of the committee member’s districts, please contact them and urge them to vote NO on SB 1072. 

Kelly Townsend (Chair)	LD 16	R	ktownsend@azleg.gov	602.926.3298
Frank Carroll (Vice-Chair)	LD 22	R	fcarroll@azleg.gov	602.926.3249
Shawnna Bolick	LD 20	R	sbolick@azleg.gov	602.926.3244
John Fillmore	LD 16	R	jfillmore@azleg.gov	602.926.3187
Jennifer Jermaine	LD 18	D	jjermaine@azleg.gov	602.926.5170
Warren Petersen	LD 12	R	wpetersen@azleg.gov	602.926.4136
Diego Rodriguez	LD 27	D	drodriguez@azleg.gov	602.926.3285
Athena Salman	LD 26	D	asalman@azleg.gov	602.926.4858
Raquel Teran	LD 30	D	rteran@azleg.gov	602.926.3308
Bob Thorpe	LD 6	R	bthorpe@azleg.gov	602.926.5219