With 34 days left to register voters for the midterm election, let’s take a moment to reflect on everything that Democrats have achieved over the last few months, and the work that we still have to do.
President Biden’s administration has had several wins over the last few weeks. After passing the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden announced up to $20,000 in school debt cancellation for federal borrowers making under $125,000 a year. Both of these moves drummed up a lot of excitement for our younger population, who are facing a climate crisis and rising cost of living in their immediate future. Make sure to talk with any high schoolers that you know about these issues and why it is so important for them to vote. National High School Voter Registration Week starts on September 19th, and that would be a great time to get their registration up to date if they will be 18 before or on November 8th, 2022.
The office of Pima County District Attorney Laura Conovor and Planned Parenthood have worked together to file an injunction in Pima County to make Arizona’s near total ban on abortion unenforceable. Keep an eye out for the final Pima Superior Court ruling that will be released later this month.
Unfortunately, the Arizona GOP-stacked Court ruled that the Free and Fair Elections (FE) campaign fell about 1,458 signatures short, despite the fact that FE spent months collecting over 475,000 signatures which was more than twice the amount needed to qualify.
Leading the effort to throw out signatures was the Free Enterprise Club (a dark money group determined to throw out initiatives that return power to the people), the Honest Elections Project and RITE (Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections), an organization headed by former Trump White House counsel Derek Lyons; RITE was founded by former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove, and its board includes former U.S. Attorney General Bill Barr.
FE is asking voters to vote NO on Propositions 128, 129 and 132, all of which if passed would make the initiative petition process even more difficult to maneuver than it is now.
Our community in Pima County was devastated by the news of Constable Deborah Martinez-Garibay who was killed while serving an eviction notice in early September. The Pima County Democrats officially moved not to appoint a replacement for her on the November ballot. It is very likely that soon the position of Constable will no longer be Elected and instead appointed by a body like the Pima County Board of Supervisors.
Although I only met her a couple of times, to me Deborah was a positive force of energy who inspired me to get more involved in my own community. I hope we can all learn from the passion she had for life.
Please remember to get your petitions for the Stop Universal Vouchers campaign signed, notarized, and returned to PCDP headquarters by 4pm on September 16th. If you turn it in afterwards, we cannot guarantee that your signatures will make it to Phoenix on time!