The race among Arizonan pro-Democracy and Public Education activists over the last couple of weeks to gather 170,000 petition signatures by September 27 to block enactment of reactionary Republican laws designed to suppress the vote and defund Proposition 208 has gained momentum.
Volunteers, largely through the umbrella organizations of Arizona Deserves Better, Stop Dirty Money, and Invest in Arizona, have set up petition signing locations across the state, gathering signatures to put seven initiatives on the 2022 ballot that would:
- Protect the Permanent Early Voting List (PEVL.)
- Allow counties to properly fund elections.
- Let the Arizona Secretary of State keep her power to defend election laws.
- Publicly reveal where campaign donations are coming from.
- Repeal the Republican tax cut measures that would make the rich richer and circumvent Invest in Ed-Proposition 208.
Over the next month, well over 120 events will be held across the state to gather the necessary 170,000 signatures necessary to process the necessary 118,000 signatures to qualify each ballot initiative by September 27, 2021.
Speaking on the drive to gather the petition signatures, Matt Grodsky, the Vice President and Director of Public Affairs for Matters of State Strategies wrote:
“Our big push to get us within striking distance of the 118,000 signatures we need per bill will come during the next month, with 120 events held throughout the state. They will be supported by neighborhood mailings to 500,000 highly engaged voters, along with texting and phone calls. There will be a sophisticated program of “signature tripling.”
We will be partnering with the people running the petitions against the education bills and with the long-sought effort to eliminate Dark Money from Arizona politics. There will be a great place in every part of the state to put all seven petitions over the top.”
Commenting on the progress made so far in gathering ballot signatures, Eric Krammer of Arizona Deserves Better stated:
“We have the infrastructure in place with 50,000 petitions printed, 500 volunteers circulating them, and signatures beginning to pour in from all over the state. It will be several weeks before we get a full sense of the flow of completed petition sheets.
Two keys to success: neighborhood meetings, and our partnerships with the education community, and Terry Goddard’s campaign against dirty money. We have three petitions, education has three and Terry has one.
Since it is hard to get seven completed signatures by snagging people on the street, we have adopted an event-based approach, inviting people concerned about Arizona’s Democracy and education to driveway events. We will be doing mailings in support of 120 neighborhood events over the next month, with a total of 500,000 postcards going out along with texts, literature drops, and phone calls. We will give signers the attached sticker.
The outpouring of grassroots funding has been great, bringing in many tens of thousands of dollars. Our website is www.AzDeservesBetter.org, where people can find links to donate, volunteer, and find locations to sign.”
Former Democratic Legislative Leader, head of Arizona Children’s Alliance, and leading member of Invest in Arizona David Lujan also commented:
“We are seeing a lot of support for the referendums all over the state. We have a lot of volunteers circulating the petitions and they are seeing that Arizonans are eager to sign all three petitions because they are angry that the legislature is attempting to ignore the will of nearly 1.7 million voters who passed Prop 208 and giving away needed state revenue in huge tax breaks for the rich.”
The forces of Democracy and social justice will not be deterred by the darkness of fringe reactionism investing the former Party of Lincoln.
Protect the Right to Vote.
Protect Elections.
Protect Public School Funding.
Go out and sign the seven petitions that will save Democracy and public schools from the tyranny of the Fanatical- Anti-Democratic- Know Nothing-Ultra Right.
Please click on the website links below for more information on these organizations and find out when ballot signature events are being held.
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