Civil & Human Rights

Immigration reform: What role will Ron Barber play?

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The Republican vs Republican-lite Congressional District 2 race has finally been called. Congressman Ron Barber defeated Colonel Marthy McSally in a very tight contest.

With the special election primary, the special election, and the general election, Barber has been running for office for 10 months of this year. Now, he can finally relax into his new Capitol Hill seat.

But, wait, there’s more… now, he has to stand up and be our Congressman.

And immigration reform– a hot-button Southern Arizona issue, for sure– is at the top of President Barack Obama’s priority list, after his rainbow-hued election win. With his delayed deportation for Dreamers and his focus on deporting undocumented criminals (and not your housekeeper), Obama has been inching forward on immigration reform.

What will the role of Baja Arizona’s new Congressman be? Find out after the jump.

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Occupy Tucson sponsors People’s Bailout Party and Potluck, Nov. 15

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by Pamela Powers Hannley Underwater mortgages, student loan debt, medcial bills, unemployment, credit cards, preditory lending– for a myriad of reasons Americans are in debt and hurting financially. How did this happen? To quote a popular Occupy chant: "Banks got bailed out. We got sold out!" To draw attention to our national debt and solutions … Read more

Team McSally seeks to suppress conditional ballots from Latino districts in Cochise County

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

The Tucson Weekly reports that Team McSally is trying to suppress conditional ballots from Latino districts in Cochise County by seeking a temporary restraining order to prevent provisional ballots from being counted on the specious grounds that the enclosure envelope was not sealed before being presented to election officials.

Spoiler alert: there is nothing in the statutes that require a sealed envelope — the ballots were accepted by poll workers, so the chain of custody was complete. CD2 Update: Republicans Go to Cochise County Court To Block Counting of Provisional Ballots in Latino Precincts:

[Martha McSally's] attorneys were in Cochise County court today in an effort to block
the counting of provisional ballots in a predominantly Latino precinct.

Barber’s campaign manager, Jessica Floyd, said it was an effort by Team McSally to disenfranchise Cochise County voters.

"We respect the ballot counting process currently taking place and want
to see it move forward,” Floyd said in statement. “The request for a
temporary restraining order filed today is an active attempt by Martha
McSally’s attorneys to disenfranchise voters in Cochise County. Throwing
away the votes of Southern Arizonans is wrong and unacceptable.”

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Attorneys Eric H. Spencer and Michael Liburdi of the Snell and Wilmer
law firm claim that approximately 130 provisional ballots should not be
counted because they “have been spoiled because they were not sealed,
as required, when they were transported from the Castro Park, Ramsey and
Hopi Precinct polling locations to the Cochise County Elections
Department and Recorder’s Office.”

The lawyers have asked for a temporary restraining order to keep the
Cochise County Division of Elections from counting the ballots.

But attorneys Paul F. Eckstein, Dan Barr and David Gaona of the Perkins
Coie law firm, which is representing Barber, say that Judge Wallace R.
Hoggart should reject the request for a temporary restraining order
because Spencer and Liburdi “simply cannot point to anything in section
16-584(D)—or any section of the election code, for that matter—which
would require that provisional ballots be sealed when presented to
election officials for verification.”

National spotlight of shame on Arizona’s ‘broken-on-purpose’ election

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

A dedicated group of high school students, Adios Arpaio, ran a successful drive to register new voters in Maricopa County to vote out the anti-immigrant sheriff of Maricopa County, Crazy Uncle Joe Arpaio. Adios Arpaio registered more than 34,000 new voters, exceeding their goal of 30,000. Well done!

But then those new voters ran into trouble on election day. Many of these newly registered voters were also signed up for the "permanent early voter list" (PEVL) but claim they never received their early mail ballot. Many other newly registered voters somehow did not appear on the voter register at their polling locations. These voters were given either provisional ballots or conditional provisional ballots.

Predictably, election officials and Arizona's GOPropaganda media blamed these voters for all the election day problems. Shorter version: "How dare they register to vote and actually show up to vote!"

Voters who received a conditional provisional ballot have until the close of business on Wednesday to return to their County Recorder's Office with the additional identification required to verify their voter status so that their ballot is counted.

Several voting rights groups, campaigns and the Democratic Party are phone banking these conditional provisional voters and even offering transportation to the their County Recorder's Office to assist them. Help out if you can.

DOJ reviewing election complaints in Arizona

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Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Talking Points Memo reports that "a representative of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division declined to say Monday whether federal authorities were considering taking action in Maricopa County, Ariz., where Latino voters were allegedly steered towards provisional ballots on election day. DOJ Stays Mum On Arizona Ballot Counting: Civil rights organizations have … Read more