Advocate for Water (and other concerns) at the AZ Legislature or on the Request to Speak app

I hope to see some of you at Environmental Day at the Capitol Thursday. Sustainable Tucson's water committee will be there tabling and advocating for water. Dan Stormont will be there to answer your questions about rainwater harvesting! You can listen to a recording of his Sierra Club presentation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHb6famFFKg

The prospects for positive water legislation are not looking good as no good water bills have yet been scheduled for a hearing (because the majority party will only schedule their own bills). Representative Gail Griffin, the chair of the House Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee, did hear more of her bad water bills, including bills to skew groundwater modeling in the Phoenix Active Management Area. All of these bills were introduced for development interests. Interestingly enough, several were held as they failed to gain enough support to make it out of the committee. That is unusual and a bit of good news.

Scroll down to find more bad water bills (and two good bills). Please, weigh in on them before they are heard in committee. Maybe we can stop some more bad bills.

Sign onto the RTS app:
https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

Review RTS directions:
https://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2018/03/request-to-speak-time.html

There are more bad bills to come. If you haven't already, please, register for the RTS system here:
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdjBMoAJrjHD57GGegmdUCKAowcr93K4vQA6a7_AjyElBtrQ/viewform

Helpful Hint: Try entering just the number in the RTS search box if it doesn't go through. Example: 2244 

Monday, January 22nd

Land, Agriculture & Rural Affairs Committee at 2:00PM

• HB2244 misbranding; misrepresenting; food products (Nyguyen: Biasiucci, Bliss, et al.) prohibits intentionally misbranding a product that is not derived from livestock or poultry as meat or poultry. This is targeting cell cultured and veggie derived "meat" products. OPPOSE 
• HB2406 agricultural vaccinations; disclosure (Gillette: Biasiucci, Bliss, et al.) This allows the livestock producers to put a label on their product that states that it is vaccine free. The most concerning thing is that it prevents the state veterinarian from requiring or administering a vaccine that has only received emergency approval. OPPOSE
• HCR2002 supporting Arizona's beef producers (Smith: Shamp) includes a lot of misinformation about cattle and expresses the legislature's support for the industry. OPPOSE

Senate Elections Committee at 2:00 PM

• SB1008 voter registration events; posting (Hoffman) requires the Secretary of State and county recorders to post a list of events where they do voter registration. This is a bill to facilitate intimidation. OPPOSE

Tuesday, January 23rd

House Natural Resources, Energy, and Water Committee at 2:00 PM 
Members of the public may access a livestream of the meeting here.

• HB2013 water improvements program; nonprofit corporations (Griffin) includes non-profits for eligibility for these grants. SUPPORT
• HB2096 tiny homes; construction; requirements; exemptions  (B Parker)  Out on rural land counties can't require building permits for tiny homes, accessory dwelling units, detached garages or green houses. Also, no permits required for solar power or wind equipment. SUPPORT
• HB2097 gray water; definition; residential standards (B Parker) includes requirements for the use of gray water. The Arizona Department of Environmental Quality already has rules for gray water. This bill would appear to prevent counties and municipalities from restricting gray water use where there's potential for contamination of ground water. OPPOSE 
• HB2123 wells; water measuring devices; prohibition (Smith) prohibits the state or any political subdivisions from requiring water measuring devices on wells in areas where there are rivers. OPPOSE

Wednesday, January 24th

House Municipal Oversight & Elections at 2:00 PM

• HB2547 voting centers ban; precinct size (Jones: Gillette, Kolodin, et al.) prohibits boards of supervisors from establishing voting centers to accommodate additional voting for a specific election as needed. This will limit access to voting. OPPOSE
• HCR2032 voting centers; precinct voting (Jones: B Parker, Smith, et al.) refers the provisions of HB2547 to the ballot. OPPOSE

​​​​Thursday, January 25th

Environmental Day at the Capitol!

https://desktopactivisttucson.blogspot.com/2023/11/preparing-for-environmental-day-at.html

Senate Natural Resources, Energy, Water Committee at 9:00 AM in SHR2.

Presentations:
Driving Efficient Water Use in Industry, Supporting Arizona's Economic Growth - Jessica Hancock, Director of Sustainability - Ecolab
WIFA Overview and Outlook - Chuck Podolak, Director, Water Infrastructure Finance Authority

• SB1081 exemption area; assured water supply (Kerr: Carbone, Dunn) says an area in the Phoenix Active Management Area that is also within an irrigation and water conservation district is deemed to have an assured water supply. This seems like another loophole.  OPPOSE

Senate Judiciary Committee at 9:00 AM in SHR1

• SB1073 obstruction highway; large event; classification (Kavanagh) includes provisions relating to obstruction of a roadway which really means making a protest where you stop traffic a felony. OPPOSE

Say "Hell NO!" to taking away Tucson's vote!

Urge Speaker of the House Ben Toma NOT to bring SCR 1023 to a vote on the house floor. 

SCR 1023 would repeal a provision of the Arizona Constitution that dates to territorial days that permits city voters to establish home rule. That enables them to make their own rules on matters of local concerns, such as how the local government is set up and how and when to run elections

Please, contact Rep. Ben Toma (District 27) & ask him not bring this disastrous bill to a vote in the COW.

Phone Number: 602-926-3298

Email: BToma@azleg.gov 

https://www.azleg.gov/legtext/56leg/1R/summary/S.SCR1023GOV.DOCX.htm

The GOP legislators want to make it pretty much impossible for us to vote!

Remember all their bills against mail-in voting!?

Over 80% of Tucsonans vote by mail. They don't want us to vote in Tucson! 

HB2229 would end mail-in voting except for military and overseas voters or voters temporarily living outside of the state. The bill text is straightforward: “Voting by mail is banned in this state.”

Remember these other bills that would make it difficult for us to vote?

HB2231 early absentee voting; limitations; conflicts (Harris: Heap, Jones, et al.) makes early voting into absentee voting and only allows someone to vote early under certain conditions. This would decrease voting significantly. 

HB2415 active early voting lists; removal (Biasiucci: Bliss, Carbone) removes voters from the active early voting list if they fail to vote early in one election cycle, instead of two. This will result in a significant purge of this list and in fewer people voting. 

 
SB1141 early ballot drop off; identification (Hoffman: Borrelli, Farnsworth, et al.) requires voter identification to just drop off an early ballot. This is unnecessary and will result in additional disenfranchisement. 

SB1566 voter registration; reregistration; ten years (Carroll: Gowan, Kaiser, et al.) Every 10 years everyone's voter registration will be removed from the rolls and they will be required to reregister. A nightmare for voters and the county recorders. 

The GOP wants to make the rules - so they can make it impossible for us to vote: 

SB1213 legislative council; procedures manual (Kern: Kolodin) substitutes legislative council for the secretary of state relative to the elections procedures manual. 

Hmm... Seems like they don't want us to vote... I wonder why?

More information: 

Amended bill seeks to strip Phoenix, Tucson city charters
Mesa also could have charter removed if voters have a say

Arizona Republicans Introduce Bills to Repeal Mail-in and Early Voting

Request to Speak on voting rights, farming irrigation and inclusivity on housing committee

weigh in on RTS to protect voting rights

This week there are several bills that make it more difficult to vote - especially HB2289 that prohibits all in-person early voting and eliminates vote by mail. 70% of us vote by mail! Please, weigh in on the voting bills as well as the farming irrigation, housing and hydrogen studies.

 
I've included a couple of bills that the Sierra Club suggested we monitor. One of the concerns I have is that they are Strike Everything bills. Strike Everything means legislators can make huge changes at the last moment (without public comment) after a bill has already gone through most of the process.

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:HB2554). 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.

Coming Up at the Arizona Legislature this Week. Monday, March 21st Senate Committee on Government at 2:00 PM HB2238 ballot drop boxes; prohibition (Hoffman: Barton, Blackman, et al.) prohibits unmonitored drop boxes for ballots. OPPOSE  HB2289 will have a strike-everything amendment on elections; identification; revisions; tabulation; mail-in that prohibits all in-person early voting and eliminates vote by mail, except for people who are visually impaired, are serving in the military overseas or who are hospitalized or out of the state on Election Day. This would affect most Arizonans as more than 70% of us vote by mail. OPPOSE HB2493 election integrity fund (Hoffman; Blackman, Chaplik, et al.) establishes an Election Integrity Fund to pay county recorders for election security measures and appropriates $12 million for it. This is so unnecessary. OPPOSE HB2602 polling places; emergency voting centers (Bolick: Biasiucci, Blackman, et al.) restricts the use of emergency voting centers to emergencies, such as war, civil unrest or natural disaster. This is ridiculous. OPPOSE HB2780 voter lists; images; voting records (Kavanagh: Barton, Biasiucci, et al.) requires a county recorder to publish a list of eligible voters, with certain identifying information redacted, on the county recorder's website 10 days before a primary and general election. It requires that they digitally publish a list of everyone who voted and their voting method, all ballot images and a sortable cast vote record. These are more unnecessary requirements feeding the conspiracies. OPPOSE HB2786 voter registrations; ballot requests; source (Hoffman: Barton, Biasiucci, et al) prohibits a county recorder from using the signature on a request to amend a voter's registration or a request for an early ballot that is not on an official form printed by a county recorder. It removes the ability for a candidate, political committee or other organization to distribute early ballot request forms or Active Early Voter List request forms to voters. OPPOSE Tuesday, March 22nd House Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, & Water at 2:00 PM HB2554 domestic water districts; wastewater; annexation (Shope) will have a strike-everything amendment on farm irrigation efficiency; fund; appropriation that establishes an on-farm irrigation efficiency pilot program opporated by the UArizona Coopertive Extention and appropriates $30 million for it. This could be positive in that it may help reduce agricultural water use. SUPPORT   House Committee on Commerce at 2:00 PM SB1396 hydrogen study committee (Shope) establishes a hydrogen study committee. It includes studying a pipeline and blending hydrogen with fracked gas infrastructure. There is no specific provision for studying green hydrogen -- hydrogen derived from water, not methane gas. There are also some other troubling provisions in it. OPPOSE Wednesday, March 23rd House Committee on Government and Elections at 9:00 AM SB1259 recounts; requests; procedures; audits (Mesnard) Increases the minimum number of precincts included in post-election hand counts and allows the attorney general, secretary of state, or Legislative Council to request an election recount. Again, this is unnecessary and harmful tinkering with election processes. OPPOSE SB1638 early ballots; visually impaired voters (Pace: Shah) requires all Arizona elections to provide for voting by the use of a remote accessible vote by mail option for persons who are blind or have a visual impairment. SUPPORT SCR1032 plenary legislative authority; elections (Townsend: Borrelli, Gowan, et al.) opposes any attempt by the federal government to "usurp or otherwise interfere" with state legislative authority over elections. This is intended to target voting rights bills at the federal level. OPPOSE Senate Committee on Natural Resources, Energy, and Water at 2:00 PM Presentation Economic Benefits of Glass Recycling in Arizona - Alex Cameron and Heidi Erm, Owens Corning HB2554 Now: counties; land divisions; surveys (Griffin) prohibits counties from requiring surveys as a condition for approving land divisions. This is the last thing we need as it will encourage more lot splits and harmful unregulated development. OPPOSE  HB2619 will have a strike everything amendment on rainwater harvesting program, but it is not yet posted. The original bill required the State Dept. of Health to post a vaccine injury data report on their website that passed the House on a party line vote. What does this have to do with rainwater harvesting? That's the beauty of Strike Everything. You might want to check back.  MONITOR   HCR2024 30x30 land program; opposing (Griffin) expresses the legislature's opposition to the Biden Administration's 30 by 30 program and other efforts to protect public lands from development, including as wilderness, conservation lands, etc. OPPOSE HCR2038 supporting proper forest management(Griffin) contains revisionist history regarding the history of national forests. It fails to recognize the impacts of commercial logging on forest health -- most of the larger trees were logged in Arizona, leaving more opportunities for the dense growth of smaller trees -- fire suppression, and livestock grazing. There is no mention of climate change. It seeks to repeat the mistakes of the past that have contributed to unhealthy forests. OPPOSE House Committee on Transportation at 2:00 PM SB1377 (now: off-highway vehicles; fund; instruction; operation) (Kerr: Rogers) says that landowners and lessees do not have a duty to keep lands safe for entry and use by recreational users or to warn of or maintain lands and trails against unsafe conditions. Don't we all have a duty to try to address unsafe conditions? OPPOSE Senate Committee on Commerce at 2:00 PM HB2674 Now: housing supply study committee (Kaiser: Chavez) establishes a housing supply study committee. This is better than the bill they were proposing, but the committee is not very inclusive. (You could make a commment to that effect.) All the members of the committee are appointed by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate (who are both Republicans.) The President of the Senate is the same one who rarely lets any bills sponsored by Democrats be heard on the floor.  MONITOR (Neutral)

Request to Speak on More Voter Suppression Bills

Bad voting bills coming up in the Arizona Legislature this week.

Monday, February 14th Senate Committee on Government at 2:00 PM SB1338 paper ballots; hand count; precincts (Rogers) prohibits the use of electronic voting and tabulating devices, unless required to comply with accessibility requirements. It requires paper ballots to be used in all elections and counted by hand. It prohibits a county board of supervisors from using voting centers. Why do they object so much to voting centers? OPPOSE SB1465 voting equipment; requirements; records; origin (Rogers) requires the Secretary of State to revoke the certification for vote recording, vote aggregation and vote tabulating machines that do not meet certain requirements. Requires at least one of the members of the Equipment Certification Advisory Committee to hold an industry-recognized cybersecurity certification. Again, more stop the steal paranoia. OPPOSE SB1571 ballot drop boxes; surveillance; appropriation (Townsend) prohibits voted early ballots from being returned by mail. Outlines requirements for ballot drop-boxes, including a monitoring camera. This is ridiculous. OPPOSE      SB1572 voting list; images; cast votes (Townsend) requires a county recorder to publish a list of eligible voters, with certain identifying information redacted, on the county recorder's website 10 days before a primary and general election. Requires a county recorder to digitally publish on the county's website all ballot images and a sortable cast-vote record. Requires early ballots, provisional ballots and election day ballots to be separated, tabulated and stored by precinct as applicable. OPPOSE SB1609 election contests; invalidated election; sanctions (Townsend) says a court will order a new election if it determines the initial outcome was determined not to be the outcome. I am not sure what she is getting at with this one. Hoping that Trump appointed judges will help in the next round? SB1629 registration; verification; images; audits; boxes (Borrelli: Barto, Fann, et al) outlines requirements for "election integrity audits" by the Office of the Auditor General, the posting of digital ballot images, registration of voter registration collectors with the Secretary of State, voter list maintenance procedures, signature verification training and testing, ballot drop boxes and hand count audits. OPPOSE SB1638 early ballots; visually impaired voters (Pace: Shah) requires any Arizona election to provide for voting by the use of a remote accessible vote by mail system for persons with a visual impairment. SUPPORT SCR1012 legislature; ninety house districts (Mesnard) will have a strike-everything amendment on voter identification that refers to the ballot a measure to require an early voter to provide the voter's date of birth and a copy of certain early voter identification when returning an early ballot. Removes the authorization for a person to provide two different forms of identification without a photograph in order to receive a ballot at a polling place. OPPOSE SCR1032 plenary legislative authority; elections (Townsend: Borrelli, Gowan, et al.) says the Legislature reaffirms the Legislature's plenary power with respect to elections and opposes any attempt by the federal government to usurp or otherwise interfere with state legislative sovereign authority over elections. This is objecting to much needed measures such as the Freedom to Vote Act. OPPOSE Tuesday, February 15th Senate Committee on Appropriations at 2:00 PM SB1411 early ballots; tracking system (Mesnard) requires counties with a population of more than 100,000 persons to provide an early ballot tracking system and provide voters with access to the system on the county's website. Appropriates $700,000 to the Secretary of State for establishing a grant program for counties to establish an early ballot tracking system. This seems fine and is similar to what we have in Maricopa County. Wednesday, February 16th House Committee on Government & Elections at 9:00 AM   HB2041 ballot fraud countermeasures; paper; ink (Biasiucci: Blackman, Chaplik, et al) requires certain types of paper, ink, watermarks, etc. for ballots, furthering the big lie related to voter fraud. OPPOSE HB2240 elections; voting centers prohibited (Hoffman: Barton, Burges, et al) prohibits voting centers. This is another measure to discourage early voting. OPPOSE HB2242 voter registrations; validation requirement (Hoffman: Barton, Biasiucci, et al) requires elections officials to independently verify the accuracy of the name, address, date of birth, and driver's license number on every voter registration form. This will create significant delays in new voter registrations. OPPOSE HB2491 elections; signature matching requirements (Hoffman: Martinez, Parker) requires a multi-factor (there is a blank in the bill) signature verification for early ballots and makes it a Class 5 felony if a person does follow that. OPPOSE HB2492 voter registration; verification; citizenship (Hoffman: Blackman, Carter, et al) requires proof of residency to register to vote -- an ID with a current address, creates new restrictions for federal-only voters, even though the state has no authority to do so, and provides new ways to punish non-citizens who may register to vote. OPPOSE HB2703 auditor general; audits; county elections (Bolick: Biasiucci, Blackman, et al.) provides for "election integrity" audits. Again, more of the same. OPPOSE HCR2025 government-issued voter identification (Fillmore: Biasiucci, Blackman, et al) refers to the ballot a measure relating to voter ID. OPPOSE 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: HCR2014). 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. Wanna speed up your Request to Speak experience?  If you don't have a comment to leave, you can go to My Bill Positions page, cut and paste the bill number into that box, click on thumbs up or thumbs down, and push the blue ADD button. You won't have to wait between each step.

Request to Speak Action: Stop AZ legislatures from making voting harder

Some state lawmakers are trying to make voting harder and elections costlier by proposing the following bills:

• SB1010 would allow anyone to order a recount of an election if they pay for it, thus delaying election results even when a recount doesn't make sense.
• SB1069 would redefine the word “permanent” by dropping voters from the Permanent Early Voting List if they miss voting their early ballots in two back-to-back elections.
• HB2039 would more than double the percentage of ballots that must be counted by hand, making elections more costly and time-consuming for no good reason.
• HB2054 would require the secretary of state to purge deceased voters, increasing the likelihood that eligible voters will be removed by mistake.
• All these bills will be heard in committee this week, so you can use RTS. Due to the stacked nature of committees, they will probably to proceed to the next step, so look ahead — contact your representatives for House bills and your senator for Senate bills to OPPOSE these bad pieces of legislation!

Please, weigh on on Request to Speak:

Sign on: https://apps.azleg.gov/account/signon

Sign up for a Request to Speak account here: https://www.cebv.us/rts.html

Scheduled for Thursday in the Senate Government Committee
(Weigh in on request to speak before Thursday or while it is still in committee.)

SB1010, sponsored by JD Mesnard (R-17), would allow anyone to request a recount of an election, through tabulation machines or by hand, and regardless of the margin of victory, as long as they post a bond to cover the cost. The proposal, which is being touted as a way to bolster confidence in elections, comes amid baseless allegations and conspiracy theories among Trump supporters of fraud in the 2020 election. County recorders on both sides of the aisle caution that lawmakers should keep in mind the time and personnel it would take to conduct such recounts. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Thursday. OPPOSE.

SB1069, sponsored by Michelle Ugenti-Rita (R-23), would strip voters from the Permanent Early Voting List if they fail to vote their early ballots in two back-to-back primary and general elections. This is at least the second year the bill has been introduced; it was on track to pass last year before the COVID shutdown. Numerous officials opposed the bill then, including the Secretary of State, Maricopa County Recorder and Arizona Association of Counties. No one testified in favor of the bill or even came forward with a problem the bill would have fixed. A solution in search of a problem. Scheduled for Senate Government Committee, Thursday. OPPOSE.

Scheduled for Wednesday in the House Government & Elections Committee
(Weigh in on Request to Speak by Wednesday's meeting or while it is being heard.)

HB2054, sponsored by Steve Kaiser (R-15), requires, rather than permits, the secretary of state to compare the records of deaths with the statewide voter registration database and purge deceased voters. Eligible voters often end up being removed by mistake, and federal law strictly governs how close to an election these purges can take place. Garrett Archer said he used to do this monthly when he worked for the Secretary of State's office. This solution in search of a problem should at least be paired with same-day voter registration so voters can correct any error. Scheduled for House Government & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

HCR2001, sponsored by John Kavanagh (R-23), would ask voters to limit initiatives in Arizona to a single subject or be invalidated. In 2017, the Arizona Chamber of Commerce sued to knock the minimum wage increase initiative off the ballot, arguing that wage and sick leave provisions violated the single-subject rule. The Arizona Supreme Court rejected that argument, saying voters could do as they liked. If passed, this bill would provide a way around that. Instituting a single subject rule would make it all but impossible to place comprehensive citizen initiatives on the ballot. Scheduled for House Government & Elections Committee, Wednesday. OPPOSE.

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.

Stand up for Native American voting rights

Petition to state and local election officials: "There’s simply no more essential duty of a democratic government than to provide open and fair elections accessible to ALL eligible voters, including Native Americans. We believe establishing satellite locations for in-person voter registration and in-person early voting locations must happen for Native American votes to be cast and counted." Add your name:

Native Americans face deliberate obstacles to voting. After centuries of genocide and land theft, America only allowed Native peoples to vote starting in 1924. But the years since brought systematic voter disenfranchisement – and got even worse after the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act.1 The 2018 midterms once more included voter suppression tactics on Native reservations. We need to turn up the pressure on state and local election officials immediately or risk more of the same in years to come. Stand up for Native American voting rights. Click here to sign the petition. There is some good news: Washington Governor Jay Inslee recently signed landmark Native American voting rights legislation into law that advocates hope could serve as a model for the nation.2 That is why we are standing alongside our friends at Four Directions, a leader for Native American voting rights and engagement, to fight to protect and expand access to the ballot box. Today, Native peoples who try to vote face obscene obstacles including:3 No federal protection. Until the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, counties with a history of voter suppression had to apply for pre-clearance before passing laws to restrict voting. Now, those protections are gone – and the Trump administration gives a free pass to counties that try to suppress the vote. No physical addresses. In 2018, states like South Dakota rejected absentee ballots because they lacked addresses, despite states' failure to provide Native Americans who live on reservations physical addresses. States with voter ID laws also commonly reject tribal ID cards. No easy-to-access polling places. Last fall, some indigenous peoples had to drive more than 150 miles to get to a polling place – the same strategy of systematically limiting polling places and voting machines that right-wing politicians use to suppress the vote of other communities of color. State and county election officials hold immense power over small decisions that make a huge difference in whether Americans can exercise their right to vote. They aren't used to hearing from advocates – so speaking out now could produce important changes. Stand up for Native American voting rights. Click below to sign the petition: https://act.credoaction.com/sign/native-american-voting-rights/?t=9&akid=32361%2E3130208%2EuWENM4 - Nicole Regalado,CREDO Action Add your name: References: Peter Dunphy, "The State of Native American Voting Rights," The Brennan Center for Justice, March 13, 2019. Massoud Hayoun, "Could Washington State Be a Model for Native Voting Rights Reform?" Pacific Standard, March 20, 2019. Dunphy, "The State of Native American Voting Rights."

Arizonans! Protect your right to vote CALL IN DAY

TUESDAY, April 16th 

Join AZAN for the 3^rd “Protect Your Right to Vote Call-in Day” to (again) ask our Representatives to vote NO on SB 1188 – the bill that takes the “permanent” of the permanent early voting list and would purge over 200,000 from the PEVL. All you have to do is dial 701-484-0521 to be connected to the House. You can check out a quick script and more information HERE.

After dialing for democracy all day – you’re definitely going to need to relax with a drink (or two) – so please join us for happy hour at Huss Brewing in Central Phoenix. We’ll be there right at 5:30pm and are bringing a few amazing friends with us. You can RSVP HERE.

WEDNESDAY,  April 17th

You’re invited to tune in to tune into a Voting Rights Virtual Town Hall – featuring Representative Athena Salman, Representative Reginald Bolding, Shelley Jackson of Arizona Coalition for Change and our very own Joel Edman as they discuss the Arizona Voters Bill of Rights and the constant attack on voting rights this legislative session. Just join ProgressNow Arizona’s Facebook page at 6 pm. More information – and a link to submit questions to the panel can be found HERE.

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