This is it. We can’t underscore this enough: in two days we will either have enough signatures to stop the universal ESA vouchers which will decimate our public schools, or we won’t and this destructive expansion will devastate our state.
If you haven’t signed, please get come into our office TODAY 10am-4pm or TOMORROW 10am-12pm. Every single signature matters. A lot. If you need to turn in petitions, please do that NOW. Save Our Schools needs to have a handle on their counts to see if they are going to be successful.
Still need your signatures notarized? You can find a location at teamsosarizona.com
Hecklers have been harassing volunteers collecting signatures for the Stop Voucher Expansion petitions at libraries & business locations. They carry signs that say “Decline to Sign.”
“I never in all the years that we have been working on initiative campaigns have we ever seen a coordinated effort like this. We usually see it in lawsuits after being successful,” said Tamar Rala Kreiswirth of The AZ Ground Game (TAGG). So, who is behind the opposition to the Stop Universal Vouchers initiative?
The Goldwater Institute (which pays for the DeclineToSign.com website) and Betsy Devos’ group, the American Federation for Children (which pays for Power2Parents.org) have organized their harassers to:
Disrupt signature sites.
Call local businesses that have historically welcomed petition circulators.
Contact the Goldwater Institute and the American Federation for Children to provide the location of signature gatherers
Take photos if a petition is left unattended
Take photos of the petitions and to check to see that the petitions have the dates correct, have been checked by the volunteer and have the county names written on the page.
Please, please drive to a petition signing location this weekend to sign the petition. Why must we repeal this bill? The simple reason is that this will decimate our Public School system. How? Click here for more info.
We have until mid-September to sign. If we don’t stop this and the Voucher Expansion becomes law, it is basically the last step to undermining public education in our country. Arizona is the test site for this legislation.
From Save our Schools: “Tucson volunteers are hard at work to Stop Voucher Expansion — let’s help get them over the finish line!”
If you haven’t signed yet, there is no time to waste: we now have just 39 days to turn in 118,823 valid signatures and stop the wholesale dismantling of public education in Arizona.
Volunteers are adding more signing locations every day. Sign and return at the locations below, or find a hub near you at teamsosarizona.com
We’ve had a recent change in our notary schedule. A newsletter post sent on 8/4 said that we would have a notary in the office every Friday from 10am-12pm. That has now changed.
We will now have a notary in the office every Monday from 10am to 12pm through the 2022 general election.
Thank you for your patience as we adjust to the schedules of our volunteers!
As you may already know, HB2853 was signed into law. This universal school voucher expansion program, if it isn’t stopped, will be the first of its kind in the United States and the death knell for public education in Arizona. It will subsidize private school education including elite and religious schools, and there are no constraints on who is eligible, with little accountability or transparency.
The group Save our Schools (SOS)is working to collect 118,823 signatures that will refer HB2853 back to the November ballot for voters to decide on whether to keep or remove this law. Signatures are due to the Secretary of State’s office (turned in all at once) by September 23rd. That means Pima volunteers will have until mid September to help collect signatures.
How you can help
Voters signing petitions back in March. Don’t worry, we are signing indoors right now!
The petition to refer HB2853 to the ballot is now available to sign and circulate at the PCDP office. We will not have regular office notary hours until after the August 2nd primary election, but signatures can be notarized by any notary in Arizona; it doesn’t have to be a volunteer notary with PCDP.
You cannot sign this petition online. It must be signed in person. You must be a registered voter to sign the petition. Any party affiliation can sign.
You must be eligible to be registered to vote in Arizona in order to circulate this petition as a volunteer.
Your signature may appear on a petition you circulate. If you are a notary, you cannot notarize a petition that you have already put your signature on.
The main point of contact for Save Our Schools in Southern Arizona is Christina Vazquez. Please call our office at (520) 326-3716 during our office hours to ask for Christina’s contact information.
Thank you for your patience. We have been scrambling over the last 48 hours to get volunteers to help us with staffing the office over the long holiday weekend.
As of 6/30 at 12pm 1:15pm, these are the updated hours and information for PCDP headquarters regarding petitions. Questions should be sent to director@pimadems.org
NEW PCDP Hours
OPEN Friday, July 1st 10am to 4pm
A notary will be available from 10am to 4pm
OPEN Saturday, July 2nd 11am to 1:30pm
Notary will be available 11am to 1:30pm
OPEN Sunday, July 3rd 12pm to 3pm
Notary will be available 12pm to 3pm
CLOSED Monday, July 4th
OPEN Tuesday, July 5th 10 to 4pm
Notary will be available from 10am to 4pm
If you want to sign a petition
You can come in during any of the hours listed above. There are also many signature gathering events happening over the weekend. Click here for a list of locations where petitions will be available to sign: https://azreproductivefreedom.com/?page_id=16714
Make sure to check in on social media for last-minute petition signature events!
If you want to collect signatures
Stop by the PCDP Headquarters to pick up petition sheets. We need all Pima County petitions completed and notarized by Tuesday, July 5th. They will be driven to Phoenix on July 6th. Please try to get your petitions notarized over the weekend BEFORE you bring them in on Tuesday.
We will have a notary available on Tuesday, if you need.
TUCSON – PCDP CHAIR, BONNIE HEIDLER released the following statement on the Supreme Court Decision on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization:
The Supreme Court has taken a giant step backward for human rights in its ruling on the Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization case. In this decision, the Court has effectively vacated the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision which gave American women and families the ability to decide when to start a family without fear of arrest or death…which is what happened to my grandmother.
My grandmother, after giving birth to my mother only 11 months prior – found herself pregnant again. She already had two small children when my mother came along. She and her husband (my grandfather) chose to have an abortion. The only option availbale to them at that time was a “back-alley” abortion; my grandmother lost her life during this back-alley abortion, leaving my grandfather with an 11-month-old and two small children. This tragedy had generational impacts that rippled through my family which can still be felt today.
The Court has rolled our country back to the dark ages of forcing women to have back-alley abortions like my grandmother had. Red state after Red state, has already approved legislation that would outlaw abortion when triggered by this decision. The Justices that decided the fate of millions of women today are mostly conservative men and a woman raised in an organization described by scholars as a “religious cult.” Women have autonomy over their bodies and are the only ones who should decide if and when to end a pregnancy.
This is outrageous. We must focus on the Arizona State Legislature, the Governorship, and all the other state offices in the soon approaching, and incredibly important November midterm election. This election will decide whether Arizona becomes a state which returns to the barbaric dark ages of abortion restrictions, or becomes a state that respects the decisions of women to terminate a pregnancy. The Legislature and the Governor can decide to put up roadblocks to abortions, or humanely create mechanisms by which women who need abortions are able to seek medical care safely and without fear of reprisal.
WE decide who will be elected in November. This is one of the best possible reasons to vote for Democratic candidates for these positions in 2022. I implore all of us to get to know our local candidates running for Legislative Districts in Pima County, and all other local and state offices. I implore all of us to get out to vote in November and make sure that we elect both a governor and a legislature committed to protecting a woman’s right to choose.
