ONE Arizona Declares “Arizona Voting Rights Protection Day”

Young Latino activists vow to stop bills they say are aimed against their growing electoral power

PHOENIX — More than eighty young voting rights activists affiliated with ONE Arizona converged on the State Capitol Thursday to declare March 21, 2013 Arizona Voting Rights Protection Day.
 

Thursday’s press conference was organized to ensure that efforts by lawmakers to reform state elections this legislative session also protect minority voting rights.
 

“We came to the Capitol to insist that our elected representatives not change the rules in midstream, and meet instead with the young volunteers from voting rights groups like ours that want Arizona’s elections to be efficient and also as fair and open as possible to every single voter in the state,” said Petra Falcon, executive director of Promise Arizona, one of 12 organizations affiliated with ONE Arizona.
 

“The truth is, our state’s mean-spirited foray into immigration matters and the subsequent backlash by Latino voters inspired many more of us to vote last year,” said Raquel Teran, statewide director of the Mi Familia Vota Education Fund, a ONE Arizona coalition member. “Unfortunately, even when some lawmakers claim they want to reach out to us, they still seem determined to suppress our community’s voice at the polls.”
 

Two elections bills moving rapidly through the legislature—SB 1261 and SB 1003—could drastically restrict practices that have increased Latino voter participation in recent years, say directors and activists with ONE Arizona.