Secretary of State

Watch Citizens Clean Elections Commission debates for AZ statewide races

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Watch Clean Elections debates for AZ statewide offices before the General Election on  Nov. 6, 2018 In case you don’t know who’s running for Arizona highest executive offices, watch the Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission debates for Governor, Secretary of State, Attorney General, Treasurer, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Corporation Commission (2 seats) and State Mine … Read more

Arizona Voter Registration Groups Sue Secretary Reagan For People Who Change Addresses With MVD; “Stamping Their Feet” Or “Protecting Qualified Voters”?

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The League of Women Voters has filed a federal lawsuit against Arizona Secretary of State Michele Reagan on Saturday, as a result of a disagreement over when and how to change people’s addresses for voting purposes after they  filed a change of address with the Motor Vehicle Division. Is it an example of “stamping their feet in front of a judge” – as claimed by Reagan’s office – or “protect(ing) thousands of Arizonans from the irreparable loss of their right to vote this November.” That will be among the questions for the judge to decide.

Joining LWV in bringing the suit are voter registration groups Promise Arizona and Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, with legal assistance by the ACLU (national and Arizona chapter) and others. They are asking that the Court order the Secretary to instruct County Recorders to count provisional ballots that may be voted at the voters’ old address (because that still shows as their voter registration address despite filing a change with MVD).

The Court is also being asked to order the Secretary of State to notify – before mid-September – all voters who filed change of addresses with MVD. The letter would instruct them as to their voting options and would include a voter registration form. (Click here to read the Complaint and related filings.)

After the voter registration groups reached an understanding last week with MVD, AHCCCS and DES about future cure to the agreed violations of the federal Motor Voter Act, Secretary Reagan announced that she had rejected the demands because changes are already scheduled for 2019 and trying it now “would only produce voter confusion.” Secretary of State Communications Director Matt Roberts told Arizona’s Politics that:

“It’s disappointing that organizations like the ACLU, Mi Familia Vota and the League of Women Voters are seemingly more interested in stamping their feet in front of a judge rather than accepting the fact that the changes they want are already scheduled. We’re confident the court will agree that sending a letter to five hundred thousand people saying the state changed their voter registration address right before an election isn’t the greatest idea.”

 

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Statewide Democratic Citizens Clean Elections candidate debates online (updated)

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The Arizona Citizens Clean Elections Commission hosts (during election years) candidate debates for contested races between those seeking public funding (clean) and those raising funds privately.   AZ Blue Meanie posted the entire statewide schedule earlier, but here’s the listing for the few contested Democratic races, statewide.  The Republicans have their own contested candidate forums.  Videos of these debates will be posted online as well.

Governor (3 candidates – Steve Farley, Kelly Fryer, David Garcia):  August 2,  5:30 p.m., view online at Arizona PBS

https://azpbs.org/horizon/2018/07/democratic-candidates-running-for-governor-debate-the-issues/

Secretary of State (3 candidates – Katie Hobbs, Mark Gordon, Leslie Pico): July 18, 5:30 p.m. view online at Arizona PBS /// UPDATE6/29/18 : Mark Gordon and Leslie Pico have both withdrawn, so only Katie Hobbs is running for this seat.  July 18 debate has been cancelled.

Superintendent of Public Instruction (2 candidates – Kathy Hoffman, David Schapira): https://azpbs.org/news/horizon/horizon-episodes/#episodePlayer  (held on June 13)

Corporation Commission (3 candidates for 2 seats – Sandra Kennedy, Bill Mundell, Kiana Sears):   June 27, 5:30 p.m. view online at Arizona PBS.  Updated video below:

https://azpbs.org/horizon/2018/06/clean-elections-corporation-commission-democrats-debate/

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Mark Robert Gordon for Secretary of State Campaign Kickoff

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Democratic Candidate Mark Robert Gordon will launch his campaign for Arizona Secretary of State on Monday, March 26, from 5 to 7 pm at the Arizona History Museum in Tucson. For 26 years, his law office, headquartered in D.C., has advised governments, candidates, political parties, and not-for-profits nationwide about federal issues. Gordon was a delegate to the 2016 … Read more

Russia attacks Britain, Putin’s puppet fires his Secretary of State (Updated)

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Events over the past week portend a developing international crisis.

On Sunday, March 4, former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were poisoned in Salisbury, England. Was the Poisoning of a Former Russian Spy a Chemical Weapons Attack?

Skripal and his daughter Yulia are still in critical condition after they were found slumped on a park bench on March 4. The officer who found them is also still in the hospital but is communicative. At least 21 people received medical attention, and hundreds more who visited the restaurant where the nerve agent has been detected may have been exposed and have been urged to wash their clothes.

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The Skripal poisoning wasn’t a battlefield attack, of course, but the Chemical Weapons Convention, of which both Russia and Britain are signatories, prohibits the use of toxic chemicals such as nerve agents except for a few, specifically described purposes; assassinating ex-spies on foreign soil is not one of them.

British Prime Minister Theresa May addressed Parliament on Monday regarding the chemical weapon attack in Salisbury, England last week. In her address, she squarely placed the blame for the chemical weapons attack on the Russian government:

Mr. Speaker, this morning I chaired a meeting of the National Security Council in which we considered the information so far available. As is normal, the Council was updated on the assessment and intelligence picture, as well as the state of the investigation.

It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia.

This is part of a group of nerve agents known as ‘Novichok’.

Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world-leading experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down; our knowledge that Russia has previously produced this agent and would still be capable of doing so; Russia’s record of conducting state-sponsored assassinations; and our assessment that Russia views some defectors as legitimate targets for assassinations; the Government has concluded that it is highly likely that Russia was responsible for the act against Sergei and Yulia Skripal.

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