Shout out to Dan Desai Martin at The American Independent for bringing this to our attention:
Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) is planning to hold an in-person book signing and campaign fundraiser in here state on Friday, even as coronavirus cases are reaching record levels there.
"Join us on June 12th for a special book signing of Dare to Fly with Martha McSally. Enjoy tacos on the tarmac, Martha-ritas, and receive an autographed copy of Senator McSally's book Dare to Fly," the invitation reads, according to Yvonne Wingett Sanchez, a reporter with the Arizona Republic.
Plans for the fundraiser remain in place even though Arizona's chief health official, Dr. Cara Christ, urged hospitals in a letter sent Saturday to "fully activate" emergency plans because of the increase in coronavirus cases in the state.
A day after Christ sent the letter, Banner Health, the state's largest hospital system, reported that, if current trends continued, the number of patients needing care could exceed its capacity.
A Washington Post analysis from Tuesday showed a sharp uptick in coronavirus-related hospitalizations in the state, from 833 on Memorial Day to 1,243 on Tuesday, a 49% increase.
At the beginning of the month, Arizona had 20,123 confirmed coronavirus cases, and at least 917 people had died. On Thursday, less than two weeks later, the state had 29,981 confirmed coronavirus cases, and at least 1,100 people had died, according to the New York Times.
Yeah, smart move, McSally. Arizona is of course a very big state this year because polling shows both Mark Kelly (D. AZ) and Joe Biden leading McSally and Trump. By the way, Democrats are fighting hard to make voting easier in Arizona:
Arizona is the latest subject of one of this season's top targets of voting rights litigation: laws that disenfranchise people who forget to sign their absentee ballots or have sloppy handwriting.
With mail-in voting sure to surge because of the coronavirus, easing restrictions on the process has become central to the Democratic effort to boost turnout with courthouse victories in almost every bellwether state.
The freshest such lawsuit, filed Wednesday, maintains Arizona's signature rules are unconstitutional because voters aren't given an opportunity to correct the mistake of returning an unsigned envelope.
It's the second federal suit Democrats have filed over remote voting rules in Arizona, which has become a 2020 presidential battleground and offers the party one of its top Senate pickup opportunities this fall. It's also a state where mail voting has been encouraged for years and is the method by which four of every five ballots are cast.
A federal judge is also considering whether to make the state count absentee ballots that arrive after Election Day.
The new suit maintains that thousands of votes will be discarded unless the rules are changed, if not by the time of the August primary then in November. It asks the federal court to order that voters be given five days after every election to complete the signature line they left blank.
This is known as allowing voters to "cure" problems election officials find with their ballots. Only 16 states had processes in place during the 2018 midterm election for informing people they forgot to sign their ballots, or their signature didn't look enough like what was on file, and allowing them to try again.
Let’s win big in Arizona. Click below to donate and get involved with Kelly and Biden’s campaigns:
Mark Kelly
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