Gabriella Cázares-Kelly thought she knew what she was in for when she took over this year as Pima County recorder, leading the office that oversees several aspects of elections. She had a dedicated staff working under her, and she also hired a former recorder from Maricopa, Arizona’s largest county, to help her navigate her early months in the role.
This is a serious issue all over, not just AZ and GA which are getting the most press on this. The Republican party KNOWS it cannot continue to win elections if everyone votes, so they will attempt to curtail voting as much as possible. In places were the GOP rules the Legislature like AZ, GA, and even here in PA, they are putting more and more restrictions of the ability to vote by mail. They will continue to pass laws until they see what the most restrictive law the vote-suppression King John Roberts will allow and then will use that as a model in all 50 states. The good news here in PA is we have a Democratic governor, so maybe we can avoid the issue… FOR NOW.
Gabriella Cázares-Kelly thought she knew what she was in for when she took over this year as Pima County recorder, leading the office that oversees several aspects of elections.
While the media searches high and low for the “Regular Trump Supporter,” it would be nice to see more stories about people like this. In my county (in Iowa), the Auditor (who is a Republican), is very upset with the sudden changes to the law and the stress and burden placed upon her and her team for the next elections when there is absolutely no good reason for it.
Every American, regardless of political party affiliation, should be furious with this.
Combined with the report just declassified on Putin’s attacks on our country thru his traitorous agents, Trump, Giuliani, McConnell, McCarthy, Flynn, McInany, Nunes, Gosar, Johnson, and so on, you want every registered republican to open their eyes.
We had a pretty good election as far as security goes, and changing the means and methods is nonsensical, unless you are doing the bidding of Putin.
Republican legislators vs 80% of the population. Go figure.
All that analysis and not one mention that Arizona is a referendum state. If bills restricting vote by mail pass, and if the governor signs them, there’s a 90-day waiting period. If 5% of voters sign petitions during that 90 days, the law is on hold until the next election, where it must be approved by voters in order to go into effect.
Given the enormous popularity of the current vote by mail system, there is almost zero chance that the law won’t be challenged and defeated. (Keep in mind that Arizona voters took redistricting power away from the legislature, increased the state’s minimum wage, and legalized recreational marijuana, all things the Arizona Republican Party opposed.)
Trump lost because he refused to take the pandemic seriously. Period. End of story…For the few weeks he did, or pretended to, his approval ratings went up. Then he got bored with being an actual President…
Pending PSA in Arizona:
“Remember, kids, the only acceptable evidence of a working voter system is a republican win.”
I think it would be simpler to say a white people win. Too many brown people can’t be allowed to have a say.
It was precisely these kinds of shenanigans that the VRA protected us against for decades. Thanks, Roberts!
Voice of the people? Who needs that?
My father who passed away last year lived in AZ for over 30 years. He and his wife moved from MI to AZ, he was, and she is very Republican. I believe that when they first moved out there the voting methods were not what they are now, and my Dad loved it when they changed. As others on here have mentioned Dad liked the ability to sit at the dinning room table and fill out his ballot, and then mail it in, or drop it off at the polling place.
I wonder if opposition to the currents system could be refuted by digging up the reasons given for changing the way Arizonians voted before the current system?
Beware the sleight of hand these people are no doubt going to pull. Watch for them to start to denigrate and try to get rid of all paper ballots of all forms, not just mail-in ballots, for example. Why? Because paper ballots are very difficult to scam: they can be readily recounted and the counting machines need not be connected to the internet. These scammers will start saying all paper ballots are not secure (after all, can you trust the people who store them, they’ll say), and so they’ll push for online machines to do the voting. Why? Because they are easier to game, of course.
These are the sorts of moves to really be watching for in the deluge of bills being proposed. Any attempts they make to impede voter registration and the like pale in comparison. As shown in Georgia, a determined effort, aided by good outreach and modern means of communication, can help compensate for foolish attempts at making it more difficult to register, etc. But within their ranks are people of no integrity who will steal votes if at all possible, and they’ll be looking for and trying to implement ways to set that up.
Re the mail-in strictures: I thought that traditionally, pre-C19, the absentee vote trended toward the right, being mainly used by the elderly and military personnel stationed abroad or out-of-state. C-19 changed that, but permanently, or just during the pandemic? I guess I don’t get the assumption the GOP legislatures seem to be making that restricting mail-in is not going to be damaging to their own constituency as much or more than the D’s.
That’s it. We have a lot of room on the upside in turnout, especially with a coherent campaign message of “they don’t want you to vote.”
Republicans “love a level playing field”.
Under Republican rules, if the two parties were baseball teams, Dems would have to score runs by rounding the bases and touching home plate. Republicans would score runs by entering the batters box.
And added costs to the local taxpayers; don’t forget that part.
Remember when the GOP used to rail against intrusive unfunded mandates?
Too much like actual work.
I love living in Arizona but the extreme acts of the “radical right” (sounds better than radical left with the alliteration, doesn’t it?) keep getting more and more upsetting/depressing. They don’t even hide it, as this article mentions: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/03/13/arizona-quality-votes-kavanagh/.
And on a somewhat related topic, like a horde of destructive termites, they are constantly chewing away at public education with several very seriously dangerous bills that have passed at least one of the legislative houses. One will make an end run around a voter approved ballot measure that would help fund education with taxes on very high-income taxpayers, one trying to increase charter schools again (after voters clearly rejected the last attempt) and another that would require teachers and districts to post ALL lesson materials publicly so parents can examine them - a year ahead of using them. Teacher salaries are already the LOWEST in the US, and they are going to experience a tsunami of teachers leaving if that one passes. Which might be what they want anyway…