Arizona Secretary of State

SWAG List of Arizona State Candidates in 2018

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Time once again for the “silly wild ass guess” (SWAG) list of candidates who are running for the legislature and statewide offices in Arizona. This list is subject to revision as candidates enter races or decide to withdraw. The candidates listed below have filed with the Arizona Secretary of State. There may be some errors as to current status, so if you have information about the current status of a candidate, please post the information in the comments.

The candidate petitions filing deadline is May 30, 2018. You can sign a candidate’s petition and/or make a $5 contribution to a  Citizens Clean Elections (CCE) candidate on the Arizona Secretary of State’s E-Qual page.

The primary election is Tuesday, August 28, 2018.

Arizona Legislature

District 1

Jo Craycraft (D) Senate (CCE)
Karen Fann (R) Senate
Ed Gogek (D) House (CCE)
Jan Manolis (D) House
Noel Campbell (R) House
Jodi Rooney (R) House
David Stringer (R) House
Stephanie Snyder (GRN) House
Matthew Daniel (IND) House (CCE)

District 2

Andrea Dalessandro (D) Senate (CCE)
Bobby Wilson (R) Senate (CCE)
Rosanna Gabaldón (D) House (CCE)
Daniel Hernandez, Jr. (D) House
Anthony Sizer (R) House (CCE)

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U.S. elections are vulnerable to cyber attack in 2018

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The 2018 mid-term elections are vulnerable to attack from what the Russians may have learned from their probing cyber attacks on state election systems during the 2016 election.

NBC News reports, U.S. intel: Russia compromised seven states prior to 2016 election/span>:

The U.S. intelligence community developed substantial evidence that state websites or voter registration systems in seven states were compromised by Russian-backed covert operatives prior to the 2016 election — but never told the states involved, according to multiple U.S. officials.

Top-secret intelligence requested by President Barack Obama in his last weeks in office identified seven states where analysts — synthesizing months of work — had reason to believe Russian operatives had compromised state websites or databases.

Three senior intelligence officials told NBC News that the intelligence community believed the states as of January 2017 were Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Illinois, Texas and Wisconsin.

The officials say systems in the seven states were compromised in a variety of ways, with some breaches more serious than others, from entry into state websites to penetration of actual voter registration databases.

While officials in Washington informed several of those states in the run-up to the election that foreign entities were probing their systems, none were told the Russian government was behind it, state officials told NBC News.

All state and federal officials who spoke to NBC News agree that no votes were changed and no voters were taken off the rolls.

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Register high school students to vote at March for Our Lives and #NeverAgain events

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In 2015, Arizona became the 1st state to pass law requiring high-school civics test: The American Civics Act will require students to pass 60 of the 100 questions on the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization civics test. They can first take the test in eighth grade, and can retake it until they pass.

If Arizona really wants to teach its children civics – the obligation of American citizens to actively participate in the democratic political process, at a minimum, through voting  – then an opportunity to put actions before empty platitudes will present itself in the coming weeks.

The students from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida,  have organized the March for Our Lives and #NeverAgain movement. Several civics events are planned, i.e., the First Amendment rights of freedom of speech, the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances:

Students, teachers, and allies will take part in a for 17 minutes at 10am on March 14, 2018. Join us in saying !http://bit.ly/EnoughMarch14.

On March 24 students, teachers and allies will take to the streets of Washington, DC and our communities across the country for March for Our Lives. We will be the last group of students who have to stand up for fallen children due to senseless gun violence. March with us. Sign up at marchforourlives.com.

On April 20th students and teachers will participate in the National School Walkout at 10:00 a.m. Sit outside your schools and peacefully protest. Make some noise. Voice your thoughts. “We are students, we are victims, we are change.” Sign the petition at Change.org National High School Walk-Out for Anti Gun Violence.

My thought was that the Arizona Secretary of State’s office and our 15 County Recorder’s offices, along with voter registration organizations such as the League of Women Voters and many others, could coordinate with Arizona’s school districts to make voter registration tables available at every Arizona high school for seniors participating in these extraordinary events to register to vote. High school civics teachers should see this as a golden opportunity to teach their students about civics.

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Trump’s fraudulent ‘voter fraud’ commission is for GOP voter suppression

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Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed, without evidence, that widespread voter fraud caused him to lose the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by almost 3 million votes, even while he won the presidency with an electoral college victory. Without evidence, Trump tells lawmakers 3 million to 5 million illegal ballots cost him the popular vote.

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In pursuit of the delusions of our always insecure egomaniacal Twitter-troll-in-chief, Donald Trump issued an “Executive Order Establishing of Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity.”

Yeah, that’s not at all what this executive order is about. It is about Trump trying to validate his delusions that he won the popular vote but for voter fraud by millions of Americans. Trump’s commission on voter fraud is, well, fraudulent.

There is no evidence to support Mr. Trump’s claims that millions of people voted illegally in 2016, which have been discredited repeatedly by fact-checkers.

Sherrilyn Ifill, the president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, warned when Trump’s executive order was announced that the commission is “a thinly veiled voter suppression task force,” adding that it was “designed to impugn the integrity of African-American and Latino participation in the political process.” NAACP Legal Defense Fund Statement on Expected Voter Fraud Commission. She is absolutely right.

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A reform agenda for voting rights

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The Arizona Secretary of State emailed me a missive entitled “Preparing For The Future of Voter Registration” in which she says:

MicheleReaganArizona is using an aging, cumbersome voter registration system that could potentially expose the identities and voting behavior of millions of citizens. County election personnel are bogged down engaging in manual processes in order to perform the most fundamental requirements of their job. It’s time to be proactive and take steps to improve efficiency and better ensure our data is secure.

Over the past several months our office has undertaken a complete top-to-bottom review of the more-than decade old registration system. While election officials around the state are well aware of its technological limitations, we’ve come to better understand the unique challenges that will face future election officials as well. As the number of voters continues to grow, the time has come to prepare for the future.

Once we finalize our assessment, we’ll begin working with our county partners to develop a plan for the future. That future must include 21st century cybersecurity protections and a registration system that makes it easier for elections staff to process basic information efficiently.

Election officials around the state have begun the process to transform the way we do business internally, as well as how we will deliver services to voters in the future. I’m looking forward to help spearhead the process and partner with our local officials to usher in this new era.

You will note that the Secretary’s focus is entirely on “a registration system that makes it easier for elections staff to process basic information efficiently,” not on a registration system that makes it easier for citizens to register and to vote.

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