Navajos will be trekking to their regional offices on Friday, May 27 to sign voting rights petitions in the largest ever Native Voting Rights rally.
They will be signing petitions to put the Arizona Fair Elections Act on the November ballot. The Initiative will give Arizona one of the best voting laws in the United States, which some people have likened to the long-delayed federal voting legislation that Democrats have been hoping for.
Immediately after Natives turned out in record numbers to give Arizona’s Electoral Votes to Joe Biden (and elect Mark Kelly to the U.S. Senate), right-wingers in the state Legislature began plotting ways to keep the Natives from voting. More than 100 voter suppression bills were introduced, but only one has passed so far this session.
The Arizona Fair Elections Act removes some past voter suppression from Arizona law, gives Arizona one of the best election laws in the country and protects voting into the future.
The Navajo Nation, half the size of North Carolina, is divided up into chapters, which are roughly similar to counties in off-reservation areas. There are 66 chapters all or partially in Arizona, and those will be the site of day-long petition signing events
In addition to the Arizona Fair Elections Act petitions, there will be petitions from Stop Dark Money and Healthcare Rising. The Stop Dark Money petition requires that money in politics be traceable to its original source. The Healthcare Rising initiative protects people from abusive debt collection practices.
I received a call a couple of days ago from the chapter manager at Klagetoh, a small reservation chapter north of Interstate 40. The chapter is planning a full day of Native dances, singing, and speakers. I don’t know what the other 65 communities will be planning, but there will be a lot of interesting things going on.
If you would like to volunteer, please reach out to us at www.mobilize.us/...
If you would like to contribute, please secure.actblue.com/... .
Former Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard will be staffing the signing tables at Chinle, a central Navajo Nation community near the fabled Canyon de Chelly National Monument. Goddard is the leader of the Stop Dark Money effort.
Congressman Tom O’Halleran will be visiting a number of chapters to advocate for the Arizona Fair Elections Act and talk with constituents. Many other candidates are expected to take the opportunity to meet Navajo voters.
Events throughout the Reservation will be broadcast on KTNN. It is interesting that a place the size of West Virginia has a radio station that reaches throughout the Navajo Nation. It is essentially the only communications medium that reaches everywhere, so it gets high ratings. Updates from throughout the Reservation will be called in live to the radio.
The campaign recently received front-page coverage in the Arizona Republic, the state’s largest newspaper. Here is the link. Arizona ballot measure would reverse GOP election law, limit audits (azcentral.com) Sorry about the pay wall.
Here are the first three paragraphs:
Lawmakers aren't the only ones with lots of ideas on how to change Arizona elections. A citizen initiative circulating in the state has proposals of its own — nearly three dozen of them — and most are diametrically opposed to where Republicans are headed.
The "Arizona Fair Elections Act" would expand voting access and reverse a number of laws enacted in recent years, from tighter controls on citizen initiatives to elimination of the Permanent Early Voting List, which critics saw as an attempt to limit the state's popular early voting program.
It includes provisions to avoid a repeat of the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election, including preventing the kind of ballot review that was commissioned by Republicans in the state Senate, along with blocking lawmakers from substituting their own slate of presidential electors if they disagree with the voters' choice.
Overall, the petition drive is a little ahead of schedule as we scramble to get 237,000 signatures by the July 7 deadline. Of course, sorting and validating the petitions takes work, so please start turning your petitions in now, even if they are not completely filled out. You can get new petitions for the final push toward the deadline.
Back to the Reservation. I’ve never tried to organize an event before that had 66 locations. Fortunately, Celina created this great link www.mobilize.us/.... We have a lot of good people willing to help us so we are looking forward to a good event. If you would like to help us, please donate at secure.actblue.com/...
If you prefer to send a check, you can mail it to Arizona Deserves Better, c/o Eric Kramer, 1910 Douglas Fir Dr., Pinetop, AZ 85935. Health Care Rising is supported by SEIU and has different rules for fund-raising. The Stop Dark Money website has details for contributions to that effort.