Our Voting Rights Initiative in Arizona includes many features, but few more important than Election Day registration.
Arizonans have a right to go to the polls and vote. That was the way it worked in Territorial Days, but in more recent history we accepted closing voter registration a month before election day and denying many citizens the right to vote.
We estimate changing back to Election Day registration will enable 171,000 additional Arizonans to have the opportunity to vote.
If you would like to contribute to our effort, please go to this link: https://secure.actblue.com/donate/azvoters#basics
Other things the Initiative fixes are automatic registration for driver’s license applicants and high school students, online registration, expanded early voting, restoring the Permanent Early Voting List, and allowing government and college IDs for voter identification.
It also counts ballots postmarked by election day, and restores a voter’s right to get help from friends and neighbors in getting their ballots turned in. It prohibits the Legislature from enacting new voter suppression measures, blocks the Legislature from stealing the state’s Electoral Votes and prohibits phony “audits” as the state suffered through with the Cyber Ninjas.
And the Initiative provides many other Voter Rights protections we will discuss in future weeks.
The Initiative requires nearly 240,000 signatures by July 7 to get on the 2022 ballot, where the majority of voters will make it law. The Legislature is not allowed to diminish an Initiative ratified by the people. If you would like to help in this effort, please sign up at: https://secure.everyaction.com/eYVHBAu8GkebyK9grQc_JQ2
Nineteen states and the District of Columbia offer Election Day registration. Montana and North Carolina offer same-day registration through the early voting period.
The old registration deadlines stem from running a paper-based system and some element of Jim Crow. (There are no Election-Day Registrations allowed in the Deep South.) Arizona’s current registration deadline – 29 days before an election – is tied to the tedious process of counties having to create paper polling books for each of the voting locations in their counties. That really isn’t necessary anymore. Counties use electronic polling books that are automatically updated for all polling locations as soon as a new voter is registered.
A study by the University of Massachusetts found that same-day registration increased voting by blacks and Latinx voters by as much as 17% in some states. “Voter registration was designed in part to make voting more difficult for Black and brown communities, and it has always served as an obstacle to voting for people of color,” said study authors Jesse Williamson and Laura Rhodes. “The findings in this report make an important contribution to the existing research on [Same Day Registration] by suggesting that, in addition to boosting turnout across all voters, the policy may play an important role in raising turnout for Black and Latinx voters in particular.”
A University of Chicago study found that same-day registration is especially helpful in turning out younger voters.
The National Council of State Legislatures says, “Multiple studies place the effect (of same-day registration) between an increase of 3% to 7%, with an average of a 5% increase.”
If you would like to contribute, please give at https://secure.actblue.com/donate/azvoters#basics
Arizona Deserves Better is sponsoring the Initiative along with our partners the Arizona Democracy Collaborative.
Also involved in the fight are our friends at Stop Dark Money. Our Voting Rights campaign and the campaign against Dark Money will help restore Arizona voters confidence in our Democracy. For more information, and to help them too, their website is Stop Dark Money.com.