AZ Voting Initiatives Take Center Stage This Week

Voting
Written By Solveig Muus

Voting Rights and Racial Justice: Ensuring our election systems promote dignity and respect for all.

How far have we come in guaranteeing the right to vote?

Lutherans have long been involved in the fight to protect voting rights in the United States. Today, the ELCA is guided by our social statement: “Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture,” as well as the 2013 ELCA Social Policy Resolution: “Voting Rights to All Citizens,” which directly calls on us to speak out as advocates and engage in local efforts such as voter registration and supporting legislation that guarantees the right to vote to all citizens.

Who is still left out of the process and what can we do about it?

From a history of voter suppression from the Jim Crow era of the 19th to the 21st century to the current climate of restrictive voter laws, many people of color face barriers to their right to vote. We encourage conversation about why this matters to us as a church and what we can do about it.

“When we rebuild walls of hostility and live behind them – blaming others for the problem and looking to them for solutions – we ignore the role we ourselves play in the problem and also in the solution. When we confront racism and move toward fairness and justice in society, all of us benefit.”

—ELCA social statement, “Freed in Christ: Race, Ethnicity, and Culture”

The election bills below will receive a final vote in the Arizona Legislature this week. Please read carefully these bills affecting the rights of initiative and referendum and access to early voting, both electoral rights that Arizonans have long exercised, and consider the values espoused in the ELCA social statements and policies when voicing your opinion about these bills.

  • SCR1024 (sponsor: Peterson) could make the citizen initiative process much more difficult by requiring a 2/3 vote to approve an initiative that contains a tax increase.

Creating a tax by initiative is a right that Arizonans have exercised several times over the past few decades, usually to raise revenue for public schools.

**SCR1024 has passed the Senate and is due for vote in the House this week. As an “SCR”, if this bill is passed this week, it will go directly to the voters as a ballot proposition, bypassing the Governor.**

  • SB1485 (sponsor: Ugenti-Rita) would remove voters from the Permanent Early Voter List (PEVL) if they miss both the primary and general election in two consecutive election cycles.

Early Voting has become the norm for most voters, and complicating the process by systematically removing voters from the list will only create confusion, and in some cases disenfranchisement. This could especially impact Independents who must go to the trouble of requesting a primary ballot even if they’re already on the PEVL.

**SB1485 is due for vote in the House this week. If passed, it will go to the Governor’s desk.**

  • SB1713 (sponsor: Mesnard; Ugenti-Rita) would require, when returning an Early Ballot, a separate sheet with a signed affidavit, the voter’s Date of Birth and the voter’s Voter ID or Driver’s License number. This would be inside the envelope with the filled-out ballot.

  • SB1003 (sponsor: Ugenti-Rita) states that an early ballot with a missing signature can only be corrected before 7:00 p.m. of election day. This does not change the practice that county recorders were following. However, when combined with SB1713, it may mean that a ballot with an incomplete affidavit could only be corrected by 7:00 pm on election day.

**These two bills are also in the last stretch, with the final House vote likely happening this week, and then to the Governor’s desk.**

ACTION:

  1. Call and Email your two Representatives in the House. Bills are SCR1024; SB1485; SB1713; SB1003

  2. Contact Governor Ducey. Tell him what you believe about voter rights. Bills are SB1485; SB1713; SB1003.

Solveig Muus
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