In the just-completed legislative session, and especially shortly before and after Biden’s inauguration, Republicans introduced many, many bills attempting to curtail voting rights. Most of the bills fell into two categories: (1) bills designed to divest local election officials (and the very reasonable Secretary of State) of oversight over elections matters and divert that power to the Reichstag (er....the Arizona Legislature), which they seem to assume will always be Republican-controlled, and will lead to circus events like the current recount situation in Maricopa County; and (2) an array of proposals to make voting harder, more inconvenient and potentially dangerous. The (2) category consisted mostly of hacking away at what was formerly called the “permanent early voting list” and is now the “active early voting list” (because no longer permanent, thanks to S1485); (b) ways to cancel voter registrations for non-voting or for stupid administrative nonsense rules. But almost every one of these bills failed this year. And the Legislative session is over until January, so evil is on vacation. Arizona is a trifecta state, but the Republicans hold very narrow majorities in both the House and Senate. Which means that for all of these awful bills to have failed, at least a couple Republicans voted against them (in the probably-mostly-bullshit "Arizona Republican Maverick" tradition). And the Republican Governor has no hope in 2024, and is not stirring the post over the Summer. We are going to determine as our initial next step: (1) if it was generally the same Republicans who scuttled each of these bills. Because if that's the case, we may be able to pressure them to continue to resist; and (2) what the margins of loss were. Those proposals that were scuttled by wide margins are probably not going to be reintroduced in the next session, so we can make them a lower priority. The squeakers may well be reanimated, and are most worthy of our attention. Cathy Sigmon, who runs the Indivisible group Civic Engagement Beyond Voting focused on AZ legislation, provided km with the following information: The Legislative session in AZ ended so late that practically everyone I know headed for the hills as soon as it wrapped. It was a brutal session, too. The session starts the second Monday in January and is supposed to last 100 days--this year, I think, it was 173. Where to begin? Arizona was able to resist the most horrendous of the voter suppression bills, and the ones that did pass are not nearly as mean as the laws in Texas or Georgia. A group called Arizona Deserves Better has launched a campaign to refer 3 of these bills to the ballot, which will involve collecting 150-170K signatures in 90 days. I'm not sure that's the type of work you can do from afar, although the group would certainly appreciate donations. There is a boatload of awful people running for Secretary of State--all our statewide offices are up for election in 2022. I think the biggest opportunity will be to make sure the Democrats retain that office. The current Dem SoS is running for Gov. There are 2 very good Dem contenders as well. Since this office governs elections in AZ, it's critical to prevent it from falling into the hands of those who are already suppressing voting. We also learned that the bogus election investigation R's are doing is a potential wedge issue since AZ independents hate it. Reports are that this “audit” has caused voting machines to be removed from the required chain of custody and will need to be replaced, costing the state millions of dollars.

Since all of us have some experience with AZ, we know that nothing much of anything gets done in AZ in July and August except focusing on not dying of heat stroke or stepping on rattlesnakes when taking out the trash. But we want to have the research in place to be prepared to strike in the early Fall. Our next steps will be making contact with organizations like Cathy’s who are working on AZ voting rights. We have compiled an extensive list of such organizations. We are going to determine as our initial next step: (1) if it was generally the same Republicans who scuttled each of these bills. Because if that's the case, we may be able to pressure them to continue to resist; and (2) what the margins of loss were. Those proposals that were scuttled by wide margins are probably not going to be reintroduced in the next session, so we can make them a lower priority. The squeakers may well be reanimated, and are most worthy of our attention. And we're looking to see if there's a pattern as to which Republican(s) are introducing these bills. Because these people can be targeted as well, especially if they are in purple districts. This seems like a good first step in setting priorities, and then determining which of the many organizations involved in voting rights would be the right match, issue-by-issue, district-by-district. This is an evolving strategy, and we may pivot based on what we find out about the voting breakdown on each of the bills. After that, for the short term - in fine Arizona tradition - we'll probably go into temporary hibernation after a follow up to the foregoing.

REPUBLICAN TRIFECTA There are 60 seats in the House (48% R) (3 vacancies as of 11/21) and 30 in the Senate (53% R). Both House and Senate members serve 2-year terms, limited to 4 terms. Elections occur every 2 years in even years with all of the House and Senate seats up.

January 10, 2022 - May 13, 2022. Session limited to the Saturday of the last week in which the 100th calendar day falls.

The Governor (R), SOS (D) and AG (R) are elected for 4-year terms in midterm elections and are limited to two consecutive terms. The next election is in 2022.

There are 7 judges, appointed by the governor from a list compiled by the AZ Commission on Appellate Court Appointments. The commission has 16 members: 10 non-attorneys, 5 attorneys and a chair, who serve staggered 4-year terms. Judges serve for an initial term of at least 2 years after which the judge runs for a 6-year term in a retention election. All current judges were appointed by Republican governors. Vacancies are filled as the seat would normally be at the end of a judges term.

Senate seats (D) are up in 2022 and 2024. House seats (4R and 5D) are up in even years.

Both congressional and state legislative district lines are drawn by the 5-member AZ Independent Redistricting Commission. Commission members are chosen from a list of 25 candidates (10 D, 10R and 5 unaffiliated). The majority and minority leaders of each chamber of the legislature choose 4 members and those 4 pick the 5th, who must belong to a different party. The governor with a 2/3 vote of the senate may remove a commissioner for cause. There are 9 congressional districts and 30 legislative districts where each district elects 1 state senator and 2 representatives.