Civil & Human Rights

The Democrats’ new Voter Expansion Project

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Announcement from the Arizona Democratic Party:

On Monday, March 24, at 9:00 AM / 12:00 PM EST, Executive Director of the Arizona Democratic Party DJ Quinlan, State Rep. Martin Quezada , and DNC Director of Voter Expansion Pratt Wiley will hold a press conference call to discuss the DNC’s new Voter Expansion Project and the impact it will have on Arizona.

The Voter Expansion Project was announced in a video by former President Bill Clinton to DNC supporters (below the fold). This new project will ensure that the Democratic Party not only protects Americans’ right to vote, but that we also work proactively with states across the country to expand voting.

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Ken ‘Birther’ Bennett and voter disenfranchisement

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How typical. The Arizona Republic editorializes today that it “has always opposed Prop 200’s voter ID requirements; we would have preferred a court decision tossing them out. But once the Supreme Court upheld them, it became clear the alternative encourages the worst of both worlds for voters.” Proof of citizenship: Let’s live with it.

Screenshot-15And what is this alternative? “Secretary of State Bennett . . .  said he will continue to prepare the dual-track [ballot] system in the event of yet another court decision against Prop 200. Dual-track voter registration is, unquestionably, the worst possible outcome.”

Secretary of State Ken “Birther” Bennett has no legal authority to institute a dual-track ballot system that disenfranchises eligible U.S. citizens of their right to vote in Arizona elections, based solely upon the voter registration form they used to register.

This dual-track system is the brainchild of anti-immigrant activist Kris Kobach, of counsel with the Immigration Law Reform Institute, the legal arm of the anti-immigrant Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR), and currently the Secretary of State of Kansas. Kobach is the coauthor of Prop. 200 (2004) and SB 1070 (2010).  The dual-track system was originally discussed in 2004, but it was dropped because it is unconstitutional. Now Kobach and Ken “Birther” Bennett want to test the envelope of constitutional law.

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Tom ‘banned for life by the SEC’ Horne perpetuates the ‘voter fraud’ fraud

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The second most corrupt politician in Arizona, Tom “banned for life by the SEC” Horne, is quoted in the media today commenting on the decision of the U.S. District Court for Kansas, Judge: Ariz. can require voter citizenship:

bullshitjAttorney General Tom Horne, whose office argued the state’s case in Topeka, called Melgren’s decision a victory for election integrity.

“It’s important because voter fraud is a significant problem in Arizona,” he told The Arizona Republic, adding that he believes there “has been what I consider to be a media cover-up of the extent to which voter fraud is a problem in Arizona.”

Seriously? The Arizona Republic last year did an in-depth investigation into Horne’s unfounded allegations of of voter fraud and called bullshit.
Illegal immigrant vote-fraud cases rare in Arizona:

At an August news conference, Horne and Bennett cited voter-fraud concerns as justification for continuing a federal-court fight over state voter-ID requirements.

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An examination of voter-fraud cases in Maricopa County shows those involving illegal immigrants are nearly non-existent, and have been since before the changes to voter-ID requirements were enacted in 2004.

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Hey Doug Ducey, don’t be coy about your health policy advisor!

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It must be true, since the National Journal picked up the press release from the Arizona Democratic Party and published it online.

For Immediate Release: March 18, 2014 Phoenix, AZ-DJ Quinlan, executive director of the Arizona Democratic Party, released the following statement today regarding comments made by former U.S. Congressman,John Shadegg, a top healthcare advisor to Doug Ducey: “Last night during a tele-town hall conducted by gubernatorial candidate Doug Ducey,Ducey’s top healthcare advisor, former U.S. Congressman John Shadegg, called Governor Brewer’s expansion of Medicaid a ‘Ponzi Scheme’ and suggested that we should ‘get rid of Medicaid’ and ‘should not have a single government-run healthcare program, period.’ Government-run healthcare programs that Arizonans rely on today include Medicare, Veterans Administration healthcare, and Medicaid.”

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