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

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.

On Monday, Dr. Richard Carmona kinda-sorta walked back his premature concession of the U.S. Senate race (given the fact that more than a quarter of the vote in Arizona remained uncounted on the weekend). Talking Points Memo reported Carmona Camp: We Haven’t Given Up On The Senate Race:

Democrat Richard Carmona isn’t ready to give up yet.

“We’re watching it very closely, and we’re going to make sure every
vote is counted,” Carmona’s spokesman Andy Barr told TPM on Monday.

He said the campaign has not ruled out taking action if the race tightens.

The latest figures show Carmona trailing by some 78,000 votes with nearly half a million ballots still uncounted.
Victory for the Democrat would be uphill climb by any reckoning, but
it’s mathematically possible. His campaign notes that there are up to
hundreds of thousands of uncounted provisional ballots that could also
affect the race.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid issued a statement over the weekend as well. Reid urges fast, complete counting of Arizona votes:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said Saturday that Arizona must work faster to count 525,000 outstanding votes.

“All of the votes in Arizona must be counted promptly, accurately and
equally. The uncounted votes in Maricopa County alone represent a major
portion of the total votes cast in Arizona on Tuesday,” Reid said in a
statement.

* * *

Reid alluded to potential abuse of minority voters.

“In light of the Supreme Court’s decision to hear challenges to the
Voting Rights Act, we are reminded that the right to vote is the
foundation of our democracy. That right is not secure when some votes
are counted while others are suppressed or ignored. I expect state and
local officials in Arizona to ensure that every vote is counted
promptly, accurately and equally,” Reid said.

The Rachel Maddow Show continues to shine a national spotlight of shame on Arizona's "broken-on-purpose" election in this segment on Monday night.

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