ALEC’s national board treasurer, Arizona Senate President Karen Fann, leads the charge on the highly controversial Maricopa County ballot audit widely denounced by election officials from both parties.
May 20, 2021 - 9:09am
Republican state legislators, including dozens tied to the corporate-funded American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), are pushing to loosen restrictions on poll watching, which has historically been aimed at preventing Black Americans from voting.
These poll watching initiatives are part of a broader movement to suppress voting in the wake of a presidential election and violent insurrection that didn t achieve what these lawmakers wanted.
The Republican Party s use of poll watching as an intimidation tactic has a particularly notorious history, and was essentially prohibited in 1982 when a federal judge brokered a consent decree between the Republican and Democratic national committees barring the GOP from engaging in ballot security and voter intimidation efforts without prior judicial approval. Before then, the RNC had hired armed, off-duty police officers to patrol majority-minority precincts wearing National Ballot Security Task Force armbands.
Updated: Tuesday, May 11, 2021 - 7:58am Rocio Hernandez/KJZZ
Aliento, one of the community groups behind this legislation, undocumented students and the lawmakers that supported it celebrated their victory in a press conference on May 10, 2021.
The Arizona House passed a resolution in a 33-27 vote that puts undocumented students currently in college and others who are college-bound one step closer to in-state tuition rates. The ballot measure will ask voters in 2022 whether they want to give this opportunity to undocumented student.
It comes nearly 15 years after a ballot measure known as Proposition 300 stripped in-state tuition away from undocumented students. The now-passed resolution will give Arizona a chance to redeem itself, said Rep. Raquel Terán.
RON MEDVESCEK / ARIZONA DAILY STAR
By Howard Fischer
Capitol Media Services
PHOENIX Arizona voters will get to decide next year whether to let children who came to this country illegally to attend state universities and community colleges paying no more tuition than other state residents.
Four Republicans sided with all 29 Democrats Monday to provide the margin of victory for SCR 1044. With a prior 17-13 vote in the Senate, that sends the measure directly to the 2022 ballot; it does not need the input of Gov. Doug Ducey.
But there is no guarantee the change the measure proposes ever will take place.