News from Your County Party
September 28, 2021
First the Bad News
A message from Arizona Deserves Better, the coalition which prepared the referenda petitions against the voter suppression bills:
We did not collect enough signatures to submit to the Secretary of State to stop SB1485, HB2569, and SB1819 by the deadline, so the fight to protect voting rights will go on.
The noble effort made by everyone to stop these laws before they would go into effect tomorrow may have eluded us, but there is good news. SB1819 was struck down in court as unconstitutional. So a number of troubling provisions in that bill have been stopped from becoming law. [Ed note: Governor Ducey has pledged to appeal the ruling, so we don’t know for sure this good news will hold.]
Please be aware that your work was essential to our partner committees working to protect education and Stop Dark Money.
Another very notable result of our effort is the incredible awareness we created, and the tens of thousands of voters we reached and started building relationships with. This is significant in terms of the outreach we must have to change who gets elected next year.
The purges of voters from the Permanent Early Voting List decreed in SB1485 will not go into effect before the 2022 election. It is critical that we work to elect legislators who respect the large majority of Arizonans who vote by mail and automatically get a mail-in ballot for every election. Getting legislators elected who respect the will of the majority of the voters must be our ongoing work.
In spite of the bad news, we can take pride in the effort we put in. We engaged with thousands of voters talking about the stark contrast between our values and the values of Republicans who enacted these laws. In the process, we registered voters and collected signatures on the successful referenda (next story).
Photo from our last batch of petitions turned in on Sunday:
The Good News
The Invest in Arizona campaign got nearly 100,000 more signatures than required to stop the $1.5 billion in tax cuts for the rich that would have decimated Arizona’s future. Instead of tax breaks for millionaires, we can invest in our communities, schools, and a stronger economic future. Without these referenda, it would take supermajorities to ever undo the damage if these laws had gone into effect.
Photo from today’s press conference at the Capitol:
The Court News
Some brilliant lawyering by the attorney for the Arizona School Board Association and coalition partners stopped some of the worst bills passed by the Arizona Legislature in their tracks yesterday. Here is a link to the Maricopa County judge’s decision with text highlighting her holdings. Governor Ducey and Attorney General Brnovich immediately vowed to appeal, so we’ll be following this for a while.
National Voter Registration Day
Yesterday was National Voter Registration Day. In cooperation with Navajo and Apache County Democratic Parties which held registration events in those counties, our volunteers set up in Leupp and registered news voters.
We also reached out on social media, asking people to use our unique URL to register or update their registration online.
Speaking of voter registration: Thank you to our volunteers who brought in new registrations at the Climate March/Shoe Strike last Friday and the Peace March on Saturday!
ADP Resolution Regarding Sinema
By a vote of 415 to 99, the State Committee members of the Arizona Democratic Party passed a resolution on Saturday putting Senator Sinema on notice that she may be subject to a no-confidence vote if she does not fully support President Biden’s agenda with actions as well as words. Read about it here.
Monthly Democratic Action Meeting: October 9
Attorney General Candidate Diego Rodriguez will be our featured speaker on October 9. Plan to join us on Zoom where we’ll debrief from the summer and look ahead to the 2022 campaign.
Prep for IRC Public Hearings
The Independent Redistricting Commission issued its Grid Maps last week, opening up a 23 day public comment period. This Saturday is the first hearing near us – in Prescott. The last hearing on Thursday, October 7 will include sites in Flagstaff and Kayenta. In Flagstaff, we’ll again be at the High Country Conference Center with the hearing beginning at 4 pm.
The Arizona Democratic Party urges you to attend a Zoom info session before attending a public hearing. Sign up here. If you are interested in speaking at the public hearing, please plan to attend one of those sessions and also contact Ann Heitland at chair@coconinodemocrats.org.
Update for those who signed the petition about the difficulty of using the IRC mapping software: By Saturday’s hearing in Prescott, well over 500 people had signed and the petition had an impact on the Commission — they are trying out new means of public map submission. Maybe too little, too late but we made our point and they seem to have heard.
Women’s March – Flagstaff
The Supreme Court’s Texas abortion decision ignited a nationwide fire. Our volunteers are working with others in the County to organize one of the hundreds of events that will take place on October 2. Please share information about the Flagstaff rally with your friends. Our PCs and Volunteers will be there registering voters!
Octoberfest
This Saturday is also the last big summer festival. We’ll be there! It’s a great time to stop by our tent and visit with our knowledgeable volunteers. We’ll be registering voters and collecting signatures on the Stop Dark Money initiative petition.
Gear
Looking for a perfect gift for your favorite Coconino Dem? Check out our new tee shirts and other gear. A limited supply of tee shirts will be available for purchase at the County Fair. Online orders are usually delivered in 7 days.
Calendar of Coconino County Democratic Party
