Request to Speak on Bad Voting Bills (still) being heard at the Arizona Legislature... ARGH!

Last week numerous ridiculous and harmful bills that would impede our ability to vote passed out of committee along party lines. Please, sign into the Request to Speak system to oppose the bad bills while they are still in committee. See the hearing times below.  

Also, oppose HB2498 COVID-19; vaccination requirements; prohibition that prohibits any government entity from requiring COVID vaccines. We are in the middle of a COVID surge! 

On the bright side...I included SB1270 state parks; lottery; heritage fund - the one good bill to support. 😀 It is being heard in two committees. 

Coming Up at the Arizona Legislature this Week.

Monday, January 31st

Senate Committee on Government at 2:00 PM 

• 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. OPPOSE.
• 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
• SB1094 petition signatures; description; invalidity (Mesnard) requires the signer of the petition to read or listen to the initiative or referendum description printed on a petition. If they do not, their signature is void. This is outrageous and intended to merely disqualify signatures. What if I do not want to read it? What if I already read it at home or read the whole measure? 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. 
• SCR1025 initiative; referendum; legislative districts; signatures (Leach) refers to the ballot a measure to require an initiative petition to be signed by 10 percent of the qualified electors for an initiative measure or 15 percent for a constitutional amendment in each Legislative District, rather than statewide. This would make it more cumbersome and expensive to do ballot measures. OPPOSE

Tuesday, February 1st

Senate Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM 

• SB1120 ballot fraud countermeasures; paper; ink (Borrelli: Barto, Fann, et al) is more holograms on ballots, among other requirements. OPPOSE.
• SB1270 state parks; lottery; heritage fund (Shope) appropriates $3 million annually from the State Lottery Fund to the Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund. We would like to see this bumped up to the $10 million that voters had approved originally. SUPPORT.

Wednesday, February 2nd

House Committee on Government &  Elections at 9:00 AM

• HB2236 voter registration; request required (Hoffman: Barton, Blackman, et al.) says no one can register someone to vote unless they have affirmatively said they want to register. This appears to be a preemptive strike against automatic voter registration. OPPOSE
• HB2241 early ballot drop off; identification (Hoffman: Barton, Blackman, et al.) requires additional ID for dropping off your early ballot. Apparently your signature is not enough for them  OPPOSE.
• HB2453 governmental entities; mask requirement; prohibition (Carter: Biasiucci, Blackman, et al.) prohibits government entities from requiring face masks for COVID. They require them for other purposes. I think they should say they are doing it for the flu or colds and do it anyway. Ridiculous!
• HB2498 COVID-19; vaccination requirements; prohibition (Hoffman: Barton, Blackman, et al.) prohibits any government entity from requiring COVID vaccines. Argh! OPPOSE 
• HCR2001 racial discrimination; public education (Kaiser: Bolick, Dunn, et al.) is a resolution that bans affirmative action and other programs to address the impacts of historic systemic racism. OPPOSE

Senate Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM 

• SB1120 ballot fraud countermeasures; paper; ink (Borrelli: Barto, Fann, et al) is more holograms on ballots, among other requirements. OPPOSE.
• SB1270 state parks; lottery; heritage fund (Shope) appropriates $3 million annually from the State Lottery Fund to the Arizona State Parks Heritage Fund. We would like to see this bumped up to the $10 million that voters had approved originally. SUPPORT

More Information:

Arizona Republicans Continue Voter Suppression and Election Subversion Efforts -January 25, 2022

Lawmakers in 47 states have introduced bills that would make it harder to vote -  CNN, April 3, 2021

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:SB1055). 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.

Good News at the End of Legislative Session!

Congrats, Environmental Advocates!

First, I want to thank all of you who signed or shared Sustainable Tucson's letter to TEP asking the company to transition faster to clean energy and not install the 10 RICE gas-fired engines.  Barbara L. Sherry and Billy Kovacs US Democratic Congressional Candidates AZ 02 signed too! 

The Arizona state legislative session has ended and we have reason to celebrate! Our advocacy paid off with several of the bills that we opposed not passing! Yay!  

First, the good news then one last call to action* for this legislative session...

Partner in advocacy Sandy Bahr shared the Sierra Club's legislative report:

Activists! We saved a seat for you! 

On the good news front, the Arizona Legislature did not refer HCR2017 Now: renewable energy standards; corporation commission. This proposed legislative referral intended to confuse voters and compete with and block the citizen initiative, Clean Energy for a Healthy Arizona, which seeks to increase our renewable energy standard to 50 percent by 2030.

None of the remaining bad water bills advanced this session! Thanks to everyone who helped keep up the pressure and make it known that backsliding is not acceptable when it comes to water adequacy and protection of the San Pedro River. 

HB2512 water program amendments (Bowers) is a water omnibus bill that contains a number of provisions, but the most harmful aspect would weaken adequacy requirements for areas such as Cochise County and could cause further harm to the San Pedro River. This bill died in the Senate as it did not go to Committee of the Whole.

HB2553 adequate water supply; county review (Bowers) is a stand-alone bill for weakening the adequacy requirements for areas such as Cochise County and further threatening the San Pedro River. This also died due to lack of action in the Senate COW.

SB1515 adequate water supply; county review (Griffin) is the same as HB2553. This died in House Rules.

The San Pedro River! 

In other good news, the Arizona Senate rejected the measure to significantly change the Independent Redistricting Commission, 13-15-2. SCR1034 membership; independent redistricting commission - included some negative commentary on the Independent Redistricting Commission and would have also required that the smallest and largest districts have a two percent or less difference in population. There was great concern from the Navajo Nation and other tribal communities that the requirement for the two percent or less difference would result in a dilution of their vote. Its rejection by the Senate is good news to all of us.

SCR1005 NOW: state; municipal corporation; industrial pursuits had a second strike-everything amendment added to it regarding initiatives requiring expenditures; ten-year repeal. It would have referred to the ballot a measure that would repeal citizen initiatives with funding sources attached after 10 years. This was an attack on the citizen initiative process and would mean constant fights for important programs. It also died in the House Rules Committee.

There was some bad news too...

Unfortunately, the majority at the legislature decided to hit and run. The last bill they passed was a referral, HCR2007 clean elections; unlawful contributions; rulemaking (Coleman: Shope), to try and weaken the Clean Elections Commission's authority and limit clean elections candidates' ability to participate in coordinated campaigns or to access voter files for a reasonable rate. It passed along party lines in both the House and Senate, 17-12-1 and 33-24-3, respectively. The voters will make the ultimate decision on this, however, so please be sure to vote no and ask your friends and family to vote no.

*And one last call to action for this legislative session: 

Please ask Governor Ducey to veto HB2498!

Scroll down for more information...

- Sustainable Tucson and the Sierra Club